Save You
by Acara Whitefox
Summary: A tribute to the characters from the world of "I'll do Anything." Chapter 6: The Elemental Nations: The Things the Textbook Won't Tell You Rated M just in case
1. Gaara: My Ultimate Defense

**Hey guys. I really should be studying for my exams right now. But when my friend and fellow Naruto fan mentioned that it was Gaara's birthday today...well...let's just say that logic went out the window real fast.**

**So this here is my first enstallment to a series of character tributes that go along side to my story "I'll do Anything." So there will be spoilers to events that will occur later on in this tribute here.**

**Disclaimer: Acara Whitefox does not own Naruto or "Save You" and "I'll do Anything" by Simple Plan.**

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**Gaara: My Ultimate Defense**

1. The first memories Gaara has of his siblings are of the day that they ran into his playroom laughing like idiots. Not recognizing who he was, they sit down and teach him how to play tic-tac-toe.

Temari (or Temi, because ar's were still beyond him) cherishes her doll collection and Kankuro (who was dubbed Kankru) likes finger paints. And Gaara loves them, because they do not look at him like everyone else.

When his father come to take them away, Gaara asks his uncle who the two "really, _really_ nice people were."

Yashamaru answers, "They're your brother and sister, Gaara."

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2. The second time that Gaara saw them, they had become "Battle hardened Temari and Kankuro," who had already taken their first kill at eight and seven respectively.

When the clouds of insanity lift from his mind for a minute or two, Gaara thinks about how they were too young.

Shukaku answers, "**And what about you, brat?**"

Gaara does not have anything to say to that.

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3. If you had asked the people of Suna what they thought about Sabaku no Gaara, they would have told you that the boy was a freak and a monster and a complete sociopath.

If you had taken the time to ask Gaara what he was, he would have said that he was a liar.

Because he like to lie to himself and say that he did not care.

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4. It is a well known fact that the Yondaime Kazekage is a control freak. What is not well known is just how much control he has over his two oldest children.

But Gaara knows. He knows because he sees Kankuro wincing from bruises on his arm. He knows because he sees Temari scrounging for money to pay for food because their father spent their salaries on alcohol.

Again.

Soon after, Gaara begins to hide his money beneath the loose floorboard in his room. Just in case.

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5. The first time that Gaara sees Temari as his sister after the death of Yashamaru is when he is eleven years old. She breaks a boy's nose because he did not realize that yes, she was in fact female.

It was only when he overhears Temari crying herself to sleep that he goes to the floorboard in his room and pulls out a wad of cash.

The next morning, Temari wakes up to find a beautiful purple battle kimono on her bedside table. It's three sizes to big for her, but she wears it like it is the prettiest dress in the world.

Temari, to this day, thinks it's from Baki. But Gaara knows better.

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6. Kankuro hates the fact that he looks like his father. And he is reminded of it everyday until a mysterious cat-like hat and a jar of purple war paint appears on his desk.

Kankuro, to this day, thinks it's from Baki. But Gaara knows better.

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7. The day that Gaara really looks in the mirror is the day that he realizes that he has red hair, a trait that none of his living relatives seem to share.

Over a series of sleepless nights, Gaara investigates his family's history and discovers that no one on either side has red hair. He begins to wonder if he is truly his father's child.

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8. The fact that he is a carbon copy of his mother's best friend is not helping.

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9. For someone who had such psychopathic tendencies, Gaara only has one rule about killing people: Never hurt a medic. Medics had always fascinated him; they gave life, where as he took it away.

Gaara has only broken this rule on two occasions, both of which were accidents. The first was Yashamaru. The second was a girl named Izumi from that failed mission before his first Chuunin exams.

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10. Gaara was excited after the Neji-Hinata fight for a reason that most people would never be able to comprehend.

Neji had broken the rule: Never hurt a medic.

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11. The first time that Gaara looks at Naruto and _sees_ him is during the finals of the Chuunin exam. It's not when the blonde unleashes a wave of chakra that makes even Shukaku go silent or when he bursts from the ground and nearly breaks Neji's jaw.

It's when he's jumping around the stadium afterwards that Gaara realizes that the kid is _still going_.

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12. The next time Gaara _sees_ Naruto is when a blob of orange comes out of no where and _kicks him in the side of the head!_

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13. It's not until he and his siblings are safely back in Suna after the invasion that Gaara has the courage to call his brother and sister "Temi and Kankru" for the first time in years. And it's when Temari is sobbing tears of joy into his shoulder and Kankuro is saying that it took him fucking long enough that Gaara realizes what a family is.

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14. After he rescued Rock Lee from the bone wielder, Kimimaru, Gaara realizes that he has had a father all along.

It is not the Yondaime Kazekage, nor is it the strange red haired man from his mother's photo album.

When Gaara tells Baki just what he means to him, the older man ruffles his hair and gives him a set of keys.

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15. When Kankuro finds out that they were the keys to Baki's house and that their teacher is offering to get them out of the Kazekage compound, Gaara finds it amusing to watch them scramble up the stairs to go pack.

He does not need to though. His bags are already at the door.

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16. Gaara decides that he wants to be Kazekage because Naruto wants to be Hokage. They would be the Jinchuuriki of Fire and Wind, fighting to pave a new path for their people and human sacrifices alike.

The fact that Gaara would be able to talk to the blond more often is definitely a perk.

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17. Gaara's new clothing did not come from Temari or Kankuro or even Baki. It came from his students at the academy.

After Matsuri's kidnapping, more and more students left his siblings and came to him for teaching. Most of which were girls who had a keen eye for the small things.

Like the fact that Gaara's sleeves were a little too short.

So they pooled their money and bought him the outfit that he would later wear to his coronation.

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18. When Gaara is called in by the council one day, he expects the worst.

He has full reason to, of course, as the previous Shukaku jinchuuriki had been terminated when she was the same age as him.

But instead of sentencing him to death, one of the councilmen merely tosses him the Kazekage hat and tells him to sit down.

It takes Gaara several minutes to regain the connection between his mouth and brain so that he could accept.

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19. Gaara likes his hat. He especially likes the fact that it can cover his entire face if angled just right.

Because when he takes it off to reveal the Godaime Kazekage to Sunagakure, he can practically feel their jaws hitting the dirt.

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20. When Sabaku no Gaara, thirty years old and a time traveler, takes a katana to the gut to save his sister from the same fate, he smiles.

Because he loves them.

Because this is his Ultimate Defense.

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	2. Sasori: Red Amoungst the Sand

**So yah. This is a tribute to another character that will be appearing later on in "I'll do Anything." I give you good old Sasori, whom I love nearly as much as Gaara.**

**Red headed anime characters, after all, are just so easy to stuff angst into.**

**Disclaimer: Acara Whitefox does not own Naruto, though the concepts of Chi and Daiki are all her's.****Sasori: Red Amongst the Sand**

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1. The first time that Sasori notices her is when he becomes a genin at the tender age of six. She has long black hair, bright green eyes with black rings around them, and a beautiful blue kimono. She was the perfect image of a shinobi, and only she is only a year younger than him.

Later, Sasori finds out her name: Sabaku no Chi, Shukaku Jinchuuriki.

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2. The next thing that Sasori realizes is that nobody likes her. He understands that Chi is creepy and all, but to run screaming from her in the streets?

Maybe it is the sand? Maybe it is the rings around her eyes? Maybe it is this Shukaku person that everyone keeps mentioning?

Sasori really does not know.

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3. When Sasori is seven years old, he is assigned to a team with "Suna's Ultimate Weapon." He's terrified, having heard the stories of the demon goddess that controlled the desert as if the sand were her limbs.

He is shocked when Chi walks in the room and asks if she is his partner.

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4. Chi likes sunrises, he discovers. Sasori likes them too, so he begins to join her on the ridge every morning.

It takes three months before he can sit within her personal bubble.

A year before she leans her head on his shoulder.

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5. Chi's files states that her goal is whatever Suna wants it to be: to take out a squad of Kumo nin; to destroy a village; to kill as many people as possible before the sun rises.

But on her tenth birthday, Chi admits to Sasori that all she really wants to do is get married and have a family.

Somehow, Sasori is not surprised.

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6. Sasori is there the first time that Chi looses control of the Shukaku. He watches as her eyes turn black and gold and her skin becomes painted with the blue lines of the great tanuki. He watches as she rips apart a battalion of soldiers with nothing more than her bare hands.

But what he sees when it is all over is not a demon or a monster, but an eleven year old girl crying, screaming "It's not true! It's not true!"

As Sasori wades through the bloody remains of people long gone, he cannot help but see how fragile, how delicate, and how human Chi really is.

When he finally reaches her, he gently pulls her hands from her hair and embraces her for the first time. And she cries on his shoulder and apologizes over and over about getting his shirt messy.

He does not care. He's got another one back at base.

When they finally get back to camp, the Suna shinobi are shocked to see the Protégée holding hands with Girl-Monster.

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7. Chi is a clinger. She never leaves him alone, not for a second. Sometimes, when he leaves his window open at night, Sasori wakes up to find grains of sand in his bed that he knows were not there before.

But because of it they are the best team in the history of Suna. When the Third Great Shinobi War begins, they are deployed more often than any other team.

Their enemies learn to fear the desert. There are legends of a black haired sand spirit that can make the desert move and of her red headed guardian and his crimson army.

Red amongst the sand. Red Sand.

Akasuna no Sasori was born.

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8. Chi has soft hair, Sasori realizes one day. He is running his fingers through it one morning as she sits beside him.

She _purrs_ and, for the first time, lays her head on his lap.

And Sasori thinks he is in love.

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9. One morning when he's fourteen, completely out of the blue, Sasori asks Chi to marry him.

She says he's insane.

He says he's serious.

She says he's an idiot.

It takes Sasori a couple days to realize that while she did not say yes, Chi did not say no either.

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10. One day, when he's sixteen, Sasori realizes that Chi is excited about something. She is fidgeting and there is a strange look in her eyes.

He takes her aside and asks her what was up. She launches into an explanation about a new jutsu that she was developing. A jutsu that could give Suna an edge against it's enemies in the War.

She calls it Satetsu, the Iron Sand.

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11. About a week later, Chi comes to him and says that she has a mission. Sasori asks when they leave. She says that it is just her, it is a suicide mission, and that she leaves in a weeks time.

Chi says that no one will miss her when she is gone.

Sasori explodes, yelling at her that she is not going die, that she is not going alone, and that he does not give a damn about what the Kazekage says so he can just shove he orders up his ass.

Somewhere in the middle of it all, Sasori tells Chi that he loves her.

Next thing he knows, they are making out in his living room like a couple of hormonal teenagers.

Which, technically, they were.

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12. Chi is sitting by the pool where his grandmother loves to fish. It is the first time that she's seen this much water in her life and she loves it.

"Is there anything else you want?" Sasori asks, his hand trailing down her arm.

"Yes. Sasori, make love to me," and she says it like it is the most normal thing the world.

He looks at the door, becoming very aware of the lack of lock.

"What? _Here?!_"

Sasori is very glad that it was Chi that he said that to. Any other woman would have probably killed him.

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13. Two weeks after he wakes up to an empty bed, Sasori barges into the Sandiame's office and demands to know where Chi is.

The Kazekage tells him that Sabaku no Chi is dead.

His legs give out on him and Akasuna no Sasori slumps to the ground.

"How did she die?"

"The Shukaku was extracted from the seal on her shoulder about a week ago."

"She said she was going on a mission."

"She lied."

The Sandiame kneels down to his level.

"Our coroners found something very interesting when they examined her body. It was only about a week along,

"But Chi was pregnant."

Sasori's teeth grind against each other as he remembers the night by the pool.

"You were close to her, Sasori. Do you know who the father was?"

He says nothing, only looks down at the floor, refusing to meet his leader's eyes.

"Ah," the older man says, "I am sorry for your loss."

Just as the Kazekage is about to walk out the door, Sasori grabs on to the hem of his robes.

The protégée opens his mouth and a strangled voice asks the question, "Why?"

The Sandiame looks at him and responds, "She was too much of a danger to be kept around any longer."

Sasori decides that he hates the man right then and there.

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14. When the Sandiame Kazekage reveals his new jutsu, Sasori is the only one who recognizes that the Satetsu that spews from his mouth is the same Satetsu that Chi was pouring her soul into developing.

Sasori abandons the village the very next day, because he refuses to serve under the man that stole Chi's childhood, Chi's dream, and now, Chi's life's work.

He refuses to serve under the man who will not even let his own daughter rest in peace.

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15. Sasori spends the next decade growing more powerful in hopes of defeating – in _killing_ – the man who took everything away. He gathers the bodies of the men and women that he has killed and turns them into his red clothed army. He experiments on himself, turning his body into a puppet.

Somewhere during that time, Sasori's mind snaps and he begins to refer to his creations as art.

Because art was eternal, and Chi was a true work of art.

Because the memory of her and how he failed to protect her when her Ultimate Defense could not would haunt him forever.

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16. When news of the Sandiame going out into battle reaches his ears, Sasori takes off in the same direction. He hides in the shadows and waits for his chance.

The Kazekage is woken in the middle of the night by the sound of one of his guards hitting the floor. The thing that killed the man is a puppet, it's red hair the only thing he could see as it's back is to him. But the Kage knows who's it is.

"Come to avenge the death of your beloved, Akasuna?" he asks, searching wildly for the man behind the strings.

But the puppet's head swivels around, revealing the face of Sasori, manic grin in place.

"Oh, you have no idea!"

The Sandiame Kazekage dies screaming.

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17. When news of the Sandiame's disappearance reaches the ears of the people of Suna, they are too busy trying to find him that they do not realize the changes made to the Wall of Heroes.

There is an extra name on the wall.

Another one is crossed out.

Ironically, it is Sabaku no Gaara that discovers this nearly a decade later. He has yet to tell anyone about it.

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18. When Sasori brings out the Sandiame and shows the Satetsu to Pein, the Leader of Akatsuki, he does not see the Kage.

Sasori sees long black hair, bright green eyes with black rings around them, and a beautiful blue kimono.

He sees his Chi again.

Sasori is just glad that Deidara does not question him when he occasionally slips up and calls the puppet Chi like Orochimaru did.

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19. Chiyo, Sasori believes, is foolish. The life-transfer technique that she has developed only works once, so if the witch was planning to bring The Mother and The Father to life she could only do it half way.

She could only revive one.

And then it hits him, just like one of those punches that the little pink haired girl dishes out.

Why Chiyo had insisted that Chi's body was to be put in a coffin, whole and untouched.

Why the old woman had developed a jutsu that could only bring one person back from the dead.

It was never about his parents.

It was never about her son.

Sasori wants to cry. He wants to hug her, to thank her for never giving up on him.

He wants to thank his baa-baa for trying bring Chi back, but his time on the earth expires before he can do it.

"_Thank you…Grandmother…"_

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20. Sasori wakes up on a hill top, clad in the red hood and blue pants that he died in. But something it wrong, very wrong, and it's only when he runs his hand through his red hair that he realizes it.

He was made of flesh.

He could _feel_.

Where the hell was he?

"Are you here to watch the sunrise too, mister?" a voice, small and childish, comes from behind him. Sasori turns to see a boy who's at least ten years old. He has a mop of black hair atop his head and a pair of chocolate brown eyes.

Eyes that are incredibly familiar, but Sasori cannot place them.

"Daiki-kun!" another voice, this time a woman, "Daiki-kun! Where are you?"

"Up here, kaa-san!" the boy – Daiki – answers, waving to whomever had called him, "There's someone up here, too."

Daiki's mother comes into view, and Sasori's heart drops through his stomach like a lead weight.

"Chi?" But how? She'd been dead for years, "Is that…is that really you?"

The woman stops and faces him. Her hair is longer, the kimono is a darker shade of blue, but her eyes – bright green with black rings around them – had remained the same.

And then her mouth is on his, and she tastes just like he remembers. It's too good to be true, but if it's a dream or a genjutsu, Sasori really does not want to wake up.

"Whoa! Kaa-san, who the hell is he and why are you," Daiki paused, pushing his fingers together in an attempt not to say the word 'kissing.'

Chi lets out an embarrassed laugh – It might have been a cough, though, Sasori cannot tell – explaining to the boy that "Daiki, this is your father."

It was his child.

The one that Chi had been carrying at the time of her death.

Who had his eyes.

It makes so much sense that Sasori just smiles and holds his new family as close as he can.

"So," Daiki asks, completely destroying the moment, "How'd you die?"

And, damn it, the brat is just like his great-grandmother.

But Sasori would not have it any other way.

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**And there we have it. Sasori's story.**

**For those who are wondering, Chi was the second Shukaku jinchuuriki (it is mentioned that Gaara is the third in Suna history) as well as the Sandiame Kazekage's daughter. Because of this, she was also able to convert her chakra into magnetic forces. Chi was killed so that the Sandiame could take her jutsu and call it his own.**

**The world in number 20 is the world where dead people live. So Sasori's going to be seeing a lot more of his grandmother from now on.**

**!!IMPORTANT NOTICE!!  
I've created a poll on my profile, so that you can vote on which character will get the next tribute. So far I have Naruto, Itachi, and Sakura up there, but I might add on Baki and Tenten soonish.**

**So go and vote, or I'll send Chi after you with a baby Daiki and a handfull of diapers.**

**Later,**

**Whitefox**


	3. Itachi: Not So Bad

**You voted on it and I gave it to you. Here is the third enstalment to the "Save You" Character Tributes. Ladies and gentlemen: Uchiha Itachi.**

**Warning: The following includes mentions of weddings, muffins, strip poker, and Icha Icha Paradise, though not in that order. Please note that the auther is slightly crazy and needs somewhere to dump said crazy thoughts.**

**Disclaimer: Whitefox may not own Naruto, but she still thinks that Naruto's eight-tailed transformation is the best thing since sliced bread.**

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Itachi: Not so Bad

1. Ever since he becomes Hokage and discovers the truth of the Uchiha Massacre, Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto decides that he needs to meet the elder of the two Uchiha brothers.

But that's kind of hard to do, seeing as the man has been dead for three years.

One day, Naruto receives a letter from Field Agent 350, Jiraiya's anonymous informant into Akatsuki that had gone silent a few years ago. It's addressed to Tsuande, but the message is clear.

"We need to talk."

Two days later, Naruto finds himself in front of an orphanage in northern Tori no Kuni. The matron tells him that he's been expected and shows him to the kitchen.

And there in all his blind glory is Uchiha Itachi. He's wearing an apron, surrounded by small children, and appears making…muffins.

Naruto raises an eyebrow, which the raven haired man returns.

"So they finally gave you the hat," the older man says with a respectful bow, "I should have known better than to put Tsuande-sama's name on that letter, Hokage-sama."

Naruto decides that maybe…

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2. Haruno Sakura does not know what to make of Itachi. He's a brilliant strategist, fighter, and shinobi all in one package. But he's also the reason that Sasuke has no family, that Naruto has to worry about being hunted down, and that Gaara was almost killed.

So a couple days after he is brought back to Konoha, Sakura visits him in the hospital.

And she yells at him. She insults him and his family, saying some of the worst things to _ever_ come out of her mouth. And Itachi just sits there, silent as the grave, taking everything she says to heart.

Sakura does not know how long she stood there, throwing profanities at the blind man. She does know that she only stopped because her voice was horse and the hospital staff had come in to tell her to keep it down.

Then she looks at him, looks into his blank eyes, and sees in them something that she had only seen in two other people. The expectation that he would always be rejected by the society that he wants to serve so badly.

And it breaks her heart.

Sakura crosses the room, wraps her arms around him, and whispers in his ear, "It's going to be ok now."

Itachi goes rigid for a few seconds before relaxing into her embrace. Minutes later, his shoulders start to shake. Sakura feels wet tears on her shirt, but pretends they are not there.

Sakura decides that maybe…

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3. When Madara told Sasuke that there are only three people alive in Konoha that know the truth about the Uchiha Massacre, he is lying. Not intentionally, of course, as he had no way of knowing that there is in fact a _fourth_ person.

This boy does not exist on paper. He has been trained not to exist, to appear only as a déjà vu to his enemies and comrades alike. One day, this boy is given a mission that like him does not exist. The mission is to kill a certain man who should not exist because his leader tells him to.

But when the boy reads the file behind this man, he realizes that the facts about his past do not add up. A streak of…something…tells him to act and find out.

The boy does not know what this something is. He does not want to know what it is, either. He does not know that this something will one day give him a mission of his own, a suicide one at that, as the boy takes on Hell Realm Pein by himself as Yuhi Kurenai goes into labour on the battle field.

And so this boy learns of the truth.

He does not understand it at first, but when he gains a name and learns of bonds from another boy who lives for them, he is able to comprehend a bit of what went through Itachi's mind the night he slaughtered his own clan.

Sai decides that maybe…

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4. Hatake Kakashi is probably one of the only people that will ever fully understand the puzzle that is Uchiha Itachi before his is reinstated.

A couple weeks before the event that changes the boy's life, Kakashi walks into a bar and sees Itachi at the back table. The masked man tells him that he is too young to drink. The Uchiha responds with a blatant "fuck you" and orders himself another round.

Kakashi then realizes just how drunk the boy is.

So he asks if he wants to talk about. And Itachi tells him of a mission that the Hokage has given him: one that will have him wipe out an entire family because they are planning a coup on their village.

Itachi asks Kakashi what he would do to deal with it afterwards.

The Copy Ninja gives him a look before sliding Icha Icha Paradise across the table.

It is only at his death that the silver haired man realizes that Itachi was speaking of his _own_ family and not some other clan in a far off village.

Kakashi decides that maybe…

* * *

5. Uchiha Sasuke does not want to believe his former teammates when they tell him that Itachi is alive and well, living in Konohagakure out of his own free will. He does not believe them despite the yelling of "He's alive, Sasuke-kun!" and "Can't you see the black fire over there, teme?!"

He does not want to think that his brother is here because Sasuke knows that Itachi will be disappointed in him, for letting Madara toy with his emotions and control him like a puppet.

So Sasuke does what his brother would have done and makes a choice.

When Sasuke shoves Chidori through Naruto's chest, he does not see the look of horror on the blonde's face. He does not hear Sakura's screaming and her feet pounding towards him.

He sees Itachi, who has just run around a corner in the street. Sasuke looks into his brother's blind eyes and smiles.

"_I understand why now."_

Sasuke decides that maybe…

* * *

6. Hyuuga Neji does not want to understand Itachi, but does anyways. He knows what it's like to hate your own clan, whether it be because of a planned coup attempt or a barbaric death seal that is placed on the majority of it's members.

Neji understands because he too is his clan's protégé and he too might have snapped, diving into the old records and telling his family's darkest secrets to the Hokage.

Neji also knows that Itachi understands him as well. Both of them were saved from the darkness that their kin had surrounded them in by a certain blonde Rokudaime. Both of them carry a mark (a seal in one case, blind eyes in another) that will hinder them until their deaths. And both of them are incredibly loyal to Konoha.

They become very good friends during the years that they spend together. Neji is often seen telling Itachi what cards are in his hands during the weekly Konoha 12 Poker Nights.

Neji decides that maybe…

* * *

7. Tenten decides to find out just who and what Uchiha Itachi is through the only way she knows how: a spar. She challenges him in broad daylight in front of a large crowd of people while speaking in a way that was, horrifyingly, rather similar to her late sensei, Maito Gai.

So they fight. She attacks him with kunai and shuriken and katanas and sickles and scythes and "What the hell was that?" He dodges, he parries, and he blocks the incoming objects like they were nothing.

And then Itachi lets her in on a little secret: he has not lost his Sharingan. It has merely been absorbed into his body, being blind is simply a side affect. He proves it by releasing a well controlled Amaterasu version of Katon: Karyū Endan, incinerating several acres of trees and a good chunk of her kunai collection.

After the battle (which he wins spectacularly) Itachi approaches one of her katana. It was the first one she had ever bought, but now it was too damaged to use.

"Don't bother," she says half heartedly, "It's too chipped for me to fix."

The Uchiha looks at her for a minute, before grasping the hilt of the sword and walking off.

About a week later, Itachi approaches her in the street and holds out a wrapped box. Inside is the same katana he had taken from their sparring match, only it has been repaired. Everything, right down to the grip, was in tip top condition.

"Wha...?" Tenten manages to get out, "You…I…what…"

"It's a beautiful sword," Itachi answers, "It would be a shame for it to go to waste."

Tenten decides that maybe…

* * *

8. Rock Lee is not one to hold a grudge, so he is naturally one of the first people other than the Hokage to welcome Uchiha Itachi back with open arms. Lee believes that the raven is full of the Springtime of Youth, being loyal to a village that had labeled him a wanted man.

It is because of this that the spandex wearing jonin becomes Itachi's confidant. Lee knows more about the Uchiha's parents than most people know their own. He often lies awake at night and wonders how one's own mother and father could only see their eldest son as a tool.

It is Lee that invites the raven to the Konoha 12 Poker Night for the first time. Most of them think he's mad, but when Itachi almost beats out _Naruto_ during the first round, the taijutsu specialist can only smile.

Lee decides that maybe…

* * *

9. Maito Gai does not know much of Uchiha Itachi. To be quite honest, he's only met the man once and it was for an incredibly brief period of time.

The missing nin had every reason to kill his Eternal Rival that day. He even had the means to do it. But he did not.

Itachi spared Kakashi's life on a whim, but still spared it. And Gai is one that counts his blessing, not matter how small they may be.

Gai decides that maybe…

* * *

10. Hyuuga Hinata thinks that Uchiha Itachi is very intimidating. She's not frightened of him in a sense that he could kill her at a moments notice, but is instead scared of his eyes.

They are as white as her family's Byakugan, but she knows that the Uchiha is as blind as a bat. Hinata knows it, but when Itachi points out to Neji that there are in fact eight birds, not seven, she begins to wonder just what is going on.

She approaches him at the dango stand that he frequents. She opens her mouth to ask, but Itachi beat her too it.

"You want to know how it is that I can see, right Hyuuga-san," it is not a question.

"Well…yes," she answers, "I couldn't help but be curious. I understand if I'm intruding on something personal…"

"Not at all. Well, when I say that I am as blind as a bat, I really do mean it," Itachi explains, but sees the confused look on her face, "Sonar, Hyuuga-san. Bats can see using sonar."

"And you adapted it by using what? Chakra?" the look on his face gives his answer away, "But the amount that it would take to see constantly would be huge!"

"I push chakra out, pull it back in, read it, and then reuse it. It's a very simple concept," he sighs before continuing, "The sad thing is though, Hyuuga-san, I haven't seen colour in almost four years now."

The Uchiha stands, leaving him money on the counter.

"Hinata," she calls after him, "My name is Hinata, not Hyuuga-san."

He blinks, before holding out a hand, "It is nice to meet you, Hinata-san. I am Uchiha Itachi."

Hinata decides that maybe…

* * *

11. Inuzuka Kiba holds a lot of respect for Itachi. He believes that the Uchiha is the embodiment of the thing that his mother has taught him since birth: obey the Alpha. Not the clan head. Not your squad leader. The Alpha, the Hokage and no one else.

When the Hokage asks an Inuzuka to jump, they ask how high.

When the Hokage asks an Inuzuka to bleed, they ask how much.

When the Hokage asks an Inuzuka to kill off their entire clan because they are planning a coup on the village, they ask what time would you like them dead by, sir.

And Itachi did just that.

But that does not mean that Kiba is not scared of the Uchiha. Quite the opposite in fact. He is frightened of the man because he never shows what is going through his head.

One night, as the Konoha 12 surround the poker table at Hinata's place (she and Neji were hosting), Itachi asks a question that will forever change the way Kiba looks at him.

"Naruto, you have incredible luck with cards, right. What happens when you play strip poker?"

While everyone is looking at Naruto, who's grinning like a loon, Kiba is focused on Itachi; the man who just proved that under the forbidding Uchiha aura, he is in everyway, shape, and form a guy.

Kiba decides that maybe…

* * *

12. Aburame Shino sees the logic in Itachi's decision that lead him to massacre his clan in a single night. He had to choose the lesser of two evils, both of which would have lead to great personal sacrifice.

Itachi had to decide between the death of hundreds or the death of thousands being on his conscience.

Shino needs to pass by the entrance to the Uchiha sector on the way home. Once a year, his kikai tell him that someone alive is in there.

This day is always the anniversary of the Uchiha Bloodbath.

And for some reason, that makes him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Shino decides that maybe…

* * *

13. Yuhi Kurenai does not trust Itachi, not one bit. She down right hates the man and is not afraid to say it to his face.

So the day that her daughter, Hoshika, is put on the Uchiha's genin team, Kurenai marches right up to the Hokage and demands to know what the hell is wrong with him. Naruto tells her that Itachi himself requested the team and knows what he's doing.

Team 23 is a team of protégés from well respected clans through out the village. Sarutobi Hoshika will someday surpass her mother in the art of genjutsu. Inuzuka Tarou is the closest in his clan to achieving some sort of a kekkei genkai since Kiba. Hyuuga Han is most likely the one containing the key for getting rid of the Byakugan's blind spot. All of the graduated from the academy at the age of eight.

Every day, Kurenai comes home to listen to her daughter tell her about Itachi-sensei. About the cool new genjutsu he showed her. About their newest mission together. About how, at the end of the day, he treated them to dango at the local stand.

Kurenai watches in horror as Hoshika develops a sort of school girl's crush on the Uchiha.

And then she gets the letter: her daughter has been severely injured on a mission. She might not make it through the night.

Kurenai sits in the waiting room for five hours until the doctors will allow visitors into the ward. She rushes past them, nearly tearing the door off it's hinges in an attempt to get to her daughter.

"She's stable," the nurse tells her, "We nearly lost her twice, but Hoshika's stable. She'll wake up in a day or two."

As the younger woman leaves the room, Kurenai's trained eyes pick up a genjutsu in the corner. She dispels it out of curiosity, and nearly collapses from the sight of what lies behind it.

Uchiha Itachi sits on the ground, sleeping like a baby. Curled up against his chest are Tarou and Han, snoring softly against him.

They must of snuck into the hospital at night to wait for Hoshika to wake up. And the thought of it nearly makes her cry.

Kurenai decides that maybe…

* * *

14. Nara Shikamaru realizes after meeting Itachi that there is no thin line between genius and insanity.

To graduate at the age of eight, become ANBU captain at thirteen, and then be a double agent for the Hokage and council is pure brilliance.

To accept the order to slaughter his entire clan, team up with Uchiha Madara of all people, and then join an organization bent on ruling the world is absolute madness.

To fake your death at the hands of your brother, sever all ties with the outside world, work at an orphanage in the bloody boonies for three years, and then come back to your home village to serve as a ninja again is just plain…plain…

Shikamaru does not really know what it is.

When he hears Itachi telling Ibiki _everything_ he knows about Akatsuki out of his own free will, the Nara sums the Uchiha up in three words.

Too freaking troublesome. He says it with a smile on his face.

Shikamaru decides that maybe…

* * *

15. Yakamana Ino has only one thing to say about Itachi when she first really looked at him: he is smoking hot. She even works up the courage over a series of months to ask him out on a date. When he suggests the barbeque shop that her team generally eats that, Ino is too enamoured to notice the odd look in his eyes.

About half way through the date, Chouji walks in and asks if he can join them. Ino's a little annoyed, but says yes and soon the three of them are having a pleasant conversation about the latest hook up in Konoha, Naruto and Sakura.

Fifteen minutes later, Itachi excused himself to go to the bathroom. He does not return.

But Ino could care less. Her alone time with Chouji was one of the best three hours of her life. When her teammate asks her out, she does not say no.

Three months later the news is out. Ino and Chouji replace the blonde Hokage and his girlfriend as the most talked about couple in the village.

Ino decides that maybe…

* * *

16. Akamichi Chouji has felt many things about Itachi: fear, anxiety, respect, and friendship being a few.

The memory that sticks out the most about the Uchiha takes place during the Rokudaime's wedding. Ino was in the back with Sakura and the other girls getting ready, so he was left wandering alone before the ceremony began. He walked into a room and came across a sight he will never forget.

Itachi and Gaara, both dressed in their best, were arguing in the center of the room about who would be Naruto's best man. The blonde entered through another door, arms flailing.

"Look, if it bugs you two so much, you're both gonna have to come to the alter with me! So will you please just shut up!"

It was only then that the three of them noticed him standing there.

"Uh, Chouji," the Kazekage said, "Do you need something?"

The Akamichi just burst out laughing at the looks of pure confusion on the faces of three of the most deadly people on the continent.

As he stumbles out of the room, clutching his stomach, he overhears Itachi saying, "I'll never understand that man as long as I live."

Chouji decides that maybe…

* * *

17. Sarutobi Asuma knows something about Uchiha Itachi that he has told no one about. Every year that he stays at the Fire Temple, the Sandaime's son would walk in on the raven praying for his dead family on the eve of their murder.

At first, Asuma is insulted.

Then he is perplexed.

Finally he finally asks the Uchiha why he is praying for the people that he slaughtered.

Itachi responds, "Because I want to."

That is the day that Asuma sits beside him and joins the elder Uchiha.

Asuma decides that maybe…

* * *

18. Hoshigaki Kisame will never get Itachi, despite the many years that they will spend together. The first time they meet, the blue skinned man challenges the Uchiha to a fight.

Itachi, much to his annoyance, does not do anything other than dodge the entire time. It pisses Kisame off, even though he can see the logic in the raven's moves.

When he is finally out of chakra, Itachi approaches him and pocks his forehead with two fingers, dispelling the genjutsu he has had on him the entire time.

"Sorry Kisame. Maybe next time."

The former Kiri-nin throws his head back and laughs.

Kisame decides that maybe…

* * *

19. Shimizu Hiroha finds Itachi fascinating. He's a time traveler, like that Gaara guy that helped her get into Konoha.

And he's really nice, too, unlike those bastards in her home village. Shibuki, despite being her step-brother, all but hates her. The children, who she only wanted to play with, all but fear her. But here was a man that knew what she was and accepted her.

Hiroha does not care that a life time ago, Itachi had been an Akatsuki member. She does not mind that he had caused her to die.

Itachi is the first non-jinchuuriki to look her in the eye and not see the bijuu that is sealed in her ankle.

He makes sure, the first night that she stays in the Hokage Monument, that she has a futon to sleep in. When his friends, Naruto and Sakura, show up, he asks if they could pick her up some teriyaki (her favourite) next time they stop by. When they sneak out into the night to get some take out, Itachi always pays for her food.

She wakes up one day and discovers that she prefers the time spent with him to the time spent without.

Hiroha, jinchuuriki of the Kaku no Shichibi, decides that maybe…

* * *

20. …maybe Uchiha Itachi is not so bad after all.

* * *

**Alright, there we have it. Uchiha Itachi and some of the stories behind him. While his general past still remains a mystery, I hope this has shed some light on it.**

**He was the one to contact Naruto, Naruto did not contact him.  
The truth behind his Sharingan is revealed.  
How exactly he is able to see is discussed.  
Itachi does take on a genin team about five years after being reinstated.  
And he's a closet matchmaker.**

**Freaky stuff...**

**And about number 19, all I can say is SPOILERS!**

**Number 1 I have no excuse for other than that I was making muffins when I wrote that. Really good ones too. There were banana, raisin, oatmeal muffins.**

**Review and I'll give you one.**

**Tenten and Baki are now on the pole. Go do your civic duty and vote.**

**Later,**

**Whitefox**


	4. Naruto: Truth Behind the Legend

**You will never guess what happen. Remember back in the Gaara tribute how I mentioned a friend that loved Naruto too. Well, she read this story and then draw Chi for me. I have fanart! Whoot!**

**The link is on my profile. [runs around like a headless chicken]**

**Ok, this is Naruto's tribute. There are mentions of cross dressing via Kage Henge no Jutsu, NaruSaku, some KibaHina...uh...there are some yaoi-like material in there, but it's mainly for a joke.**

**Um...I wanted to say something else, but I can't remember it right now.**

**Disclaimer: Whitefox does not own anything, except maybe Shun and Tai, but that's really stretching it...**

* * *

Naruto – Truth Behind the Legend

1. Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto has been called many things over the course of his life. He has carried the titles of Kyuubi-brat, monster, jinchuuriki, freak, loser, failure, dead last, annoyance, pest, friend, first crush, comrade, equal, best friend, apprentice, brother, god son, savour, first true love, hero, The One Man Army, The Hurricane of Konoha, the Neo Toad Sannin, the New Toad Sage, the only S-Ranked Genin in history, and finally the Rokudaime Hokage.

But above all, Naruto is been called a Legend.

Of course, several facts in that legend have been exaggerated. They made a movie, which they called _Naruto: Will of Fire_, about him one time. When his friends went to go see it, they were unable to look at him without laughing for three days straight. The kid who played him sounded like a less perverted, more focused version of Jiraiya, the girl who had the role of Sakura not only was hopelessly in love with him from the very beginning, but had _implants_, and Sasuke's character was just plain wrong. There was way too much speech making, way too much romance, and not enough realistic fact that everyone from the farthest reaches of Rai no Kuni to the most isolated desert tribe in Wind thought it was real.

But Naruto is not a Legend. He is not the semi-immortal, demi god that the world makes him out to be.

Naruto is a man, nothing more and nothing less.

This is his true story.

This is the truth behind the legend that is Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto.

* * *

2. Naruto's very first memory is of a pair of huge red eyes looking down on him. A voice whispers something, a word, and the blonde believes that to be his name.

The matron at the orphanage is terrified of him because he will only answer to the name Kyuubi.

Even after the Sandaime comes to inform him that his name is not Kyuubi, but Uzumaki Naruto, the woman still believes that the monster is lurking just behind the skin of the scrawny boy in front of her.

* * *

3. Naruto hates living at the orphanage. He hates the matron, he hates the other children, he hates the food, he hates the bed, he hates the walls, he hates everything! So one day, when he's four years old, Naruto runs from the woman who is yelling at him for the umpteenth time about something that he did not do and slams the front door in her face.

He spends the next two years living on the streets in Konoha.

And it is because of this that Naruto knows his home like the back of his hand. He knows every turn in the streets, all the alleyways and the backs of shops. He knows the best places to hide, to sleep, to get food, and to watch the stars.

Naruto learns to gamble at a young age. He knows enough swear words to make old sailors weep and can pick a pocket better than most chunin.

But while most would have hated it, those two years are the best part of his entire childhood because he is free.

* * *

4. Naruto does not initially become a ninja to fight for his village. He becomes a ninja to get a home.

There had been one too many days that he had woken up and not been able to find food. While life on the outside is wonderful, the boy thinks that it is time to settle down and start making a steady income.

The teachers at the academy set him up in the large apartment complex that war orphans that are too old to stay at the orphanage use until they can buy a home for themselves. The girl who lives beside him is really nice, and on the day that he moves in she bakes him some muffins.

Honest to goodness muffins.

Naruto never sees her again, though. The very next week, management cleans out her apartment. He asks them if she is coming back, because he still has the box she gave him the muffins in. They give him a look before telling him, `Welcome to the World of Shinobi, kid."

He still has the box, just in case she does show up.

* * *

5. Naruto has, to date, made three promises of a lifetime. The first one is not as well known as the last two, but is just as important.

One day when he is seven, Naruto watches as a little pink haired girl decks some kid for saying that her forehead was big. He watches as her soft green eyes become a raging inferno of emotion and he dares to call her beautiful.

Uzumaki Naruto swears that someday he is going to marry that girl.

* * *

6. Naruto originally wanted to become Hokage because of something that Yakamana Ino said.

Her words exactly are, "The day that I allow you to take Sakura out on a date is the day you become Hokage."

Naruto does not even know what a Hokage is at the time, but when he does find out, his dream changes from taking the girl with blazing green eyes out on a date to gaining the respect of the entire village as the most powerful warrior in history.

The fact that, as Hokage, he would be King of all while Uchiha Sasuke would remain a lowly Prince never even crosses his mind.

When he is nineteen and has finally achieved his dream, Naruto walks up to Ino during the reception and asks if he can take Sakura out on a date now. She, the only person to get it, breaks down laughing before responding yes.

* * *

7. During the years that Naruto stays at the academy, the teachers there were rather averse to having the Kyuubi-brat in their classroom. Many thought that letting him learn ninja techniques would make him become too powerful and that he would turn on them. It was only the because of an order from the council (who believe him to be their civil war weapon) and a request from the Hokage (who thinks of the boy as a grandchild) that kept them from throwing him out on his first day.

All of his teachers have, at one point, sabotaged his tests. Even Iruka is guilty of marking him harder than academy standards call for when it comes to shuriken throwing or taijutsu practice. They stunted his growth in hopes that Naruto would quit and never try to manipulate chakra again.

After all, no one wanted Kyuubi no Youko to rise once more.

But this would lead to several problems that the blonde would have to face later in life. The most devastating and least noticed of all of these problems is that Naruto cannot read or write anything other than his name, the numbers one to ten, and the word Hokage.

He is only able to learn Kage Bushin no Jutsu from the Scroll of Sealing because of the intricate diagrams that are drawn beside the description.

He is unable to pass Ibiki's test during the first exam because he has no idea what is written on the paper.

No one noticed, or even paid attention, to the fact that after he sees his name on the electronic board during the preliminaries of his first and only chunin exams, Naruto looks around wildly to see who his opponent is as he cannot read the words "Inuzuka Kiba" just below his name.

It is Jiraiya that finally realizes Naruto's problem and personally sits down to remedy it when he is fifteen. This is one of the many reasons why the blonde believes the Toad Sannin to be like his father.

Iruka still feels a wave of guilt when he walks into Naruto's office to see him sounding out the words on a document like an eight year old child despite being in his late twenties.

* * *

8. Naruto has, to date, been kissed by a grand total of four woman and three men.

His first kiss is an atrocity. Looking back on it, the blonde decides that it was fairly stupid to hop up in front of Sasuke and just snarl at him while sitting in a position that was anything but balanced. The beating afterwards by the Uchiha's enraged fangirls, though painful, is a blessing. It helps Naruto get over the fact that he just kissed _Sasuke_ (who's like his older brother and doing…that…is like incest gone horribly, horribly wrong) and concentrate on surviving.

His second kiss, though not on his lips, is from Tsuande. It has a message behind it, one that is shouting, "If I'm going to be Hokage, you better be ready because you are my successor, brat." And Naruto is overjoyed because someone has finally agreed with him in that he is going to become Hokage one day.

When he thinks back on his third kiss, Naruto believes that he should have seen it coming. The guy had been so deprived as a child that emotions like "friendship" and "love" were about as foreign to him as an ocean. And so, confusing the feeling of friendship for that of romantic love, Sabaku no Gaara ends up frenching Naruto in the middle of a crowded street.

Needless to say, neither of them have spoken of it since.

His fourth kiss was from Temari, who probably did not even know what she was doing at the time. So overjoyed that her baby brother was alive, safe from the Akatsuki organization that had kidnapped him, the blonde Suna nin kissed Naruto on the mouth before dancing back into the crowds to welcome Gaara back home. He had not moved from the spot when Lee found him fifteen minutes later and managed to snap him out of it.

Temari claims that she does not remember a thing.

Naruto's fifth kiss came from Shion, the priestess from the Land of Demons. Just before heading back to Konoha, the girl kisses him in full force and tells him that if he was ever in the neighbourhood to stop by. To this day, the blonde does not know why Sakura refused to talk to him all the way home.

His sixth kiss came from Sakura herself the day he woke up in the hospital the day after the fight with Sasuke. He cries in her arms, saddened not only by the loss of his first real friend, but by the fact that Sakura had to kill the man that she was in love with. She lets out a sad sigh and cups his cheek with one hand.

"Baka," Sakura smiles, "That was a long time ago, and I've moved on."

She kisses him softly and sweetly before Naruto comes to his senses and takes over, showing this beautiful woman (that he is now on top of) all the pent up emotion and fire that he has hidden away since he was seven.

"I love you," he mutters into her lips, pressing her further into the mattress.

"I love you, too," Sakura responds.

And then Itachi walks in, blinks, stares at them for a bit and then says, "I'll come back later then…"

Naruto never got the name of the seventh person that kisses him. He had gone in a bar one day as Hi no Naruko. Then this guy walks over to him, kissed him on the mouth, and then asked what "she liked to do for fun." Naruto then told the man the truth in a deadpan that would have made an Uchiha proud:

"I dress up as a woman and go to bars."

Kanako, the lady who is sitting beside him, nearly drops her transformation and reverts back to Gaara from laughing so hard.

They left the guy the bill.

* * *

9. Naruto knows that his mother, Uzumaki Kushina, was a younger princess from Uzumaki no Kuni. What he does not know is that her two older brothers were also able to escape and have children of their own.

Uzumaki Shun and Tai are twins, identical in everyway except time of birth (Shun was a couple minutes older). Both have short cropped red hair and mud brown eyes. Both have rather blunt personalities, something that they share with their younger sister.

When the Kingdom falls during the Third Great Shinobi War, the royal family is split up in order to keep them out of enemy hands. Shun runs to north to Kumo, Tai takes a boat and heads east to Kiri, and Kushina travels west to Konoha.

All three fall in love, get married, have a single child, and then die within minutes of their child's birth. The only difference between the three is that Kushina is the only one to have a boy.

Shun's girl is sold into slavery at a young age. Tai's child is captured by ship raiders and used as a bargaining chip to get through customs. Kushina's boy becomes a jinchuuriki.

What is also quite interesting is that all three cousins have met each other at one point in their lives. Though upon meeting Naruto, each of the girls met their deaths as well.

Tai's girl is crushed to death beneath a pile of logs at the age of fourteen. Shun's child is killed in battle when she is nineteen, dying in the arms of the man who should have been her lover.

Naruto will never know that once upon a time he did have a family or that he is now the sole heir to an entire kingdom.

As irony will have it, neither will Tayuya or Karin.

* * *

10. If Kyuubi no Youko never attacked Konoha, the Legend that is Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto would have been very different.

Kushina would have survived giving birth to her son and upon hearing of her brothers' deaths, she would adopt Uzumaki Tayuya and Karin into their family. Naruto would grow up with two older sisters, loving parents, and a very perverted Uncle Jiraiya.

He would graduate at age ten; make chunin at twelve, and then jonin at sixteen. The Uchiha Massacre would never occur, but Naruto would have to talk Itachi out of ANBU and back into the real world. Itachi would believe that he owes the family his humanity and vows to serve them for the remainder of his days. Kushina just tells him to shut up and eat his ramen.

Rock Lee would be held back another year, but the Hokage would make an under-the-table deal with Gai that would let him make genin with Uchiha Sasuke's class. Naruto would be the idol of many of the boys and the fascination of the girls, both of which would be under the impression that the Yondaime's son only hung out with strong people.

The most interesting part of it all would be Team 7's love life. Kakashi would still be the ladies man he is today, but it would be Sakura with the monster crush on Naruto. Lee would challenge Sasuke to duels for Karin's heart, the latter of whom would all but stalk the glasses wearing girl.

Orochimaru's invasion would be over in a matter of minutes; one quick Hiraishin and a kunai slash later, the immortal-wannabe is a dead man. Gaara would still "see the light" during the invasion, but not in a battle against Naruto. The Suna jinchuuriki would fight and lose to Tayuya, whose music would calm the monster inside of him until he is able to regain control over his mind. The boy would later begin to have a small crush on the Uzumaki girl, which would become a big one, and finally transform into all out love.

The search teams sent into the Oto bases would discover Suigetsu and bring him to Konoha. Karin would look after him while he was in custody pending release. The former Kiri-nin would mistake her for a goddess the first time she walks into his cell, and the moment he gains a Konoha headband, he asks her out on a date.

Suna would fall on an earlier date, though there would be more survivors. Gaara would live, but he would loose both of his siblings that day. He, Baki, Matsuri, and about twenty others would make the trek to Konoha as refugees.

Akatsuki would still attack, because of the orders given by an Uchiha with nothing to lose. The Red Dawn Organization would parish in the battle, Suigetsu would gain Kisame's sword, and the dying Pein would give Gaara the scroll, not Itachi.

Sakura would still marry Naruto (who would become Godaime, not Rokudaime), though their child would be a boy and named Haku. Suigetsu would be hospitalized for a month after having to fight off both Sasuke and Lee at the same time, who walk in on him making love to Karin. The two would never marry. Karin would say it was because she thinks she would look fat in the dress. Suigetsu would be terrified of what would happen if _those two_ found out. Tayuya would marry one of the male Suna refugees, completely oblivious to the fact that the Kazekage had feelings for her.

But once again, all would come crashing down in Naruto's thirtieth year. Sakura and Naruto would not make it through the battle, though Tayuya and Suigetsu would. Itachi would die protecting Karin. Gaara would, once again, survive and use the scroll containing the time travel technique to send the four to them back to save the world.

If you think about it, is this world really all that different?

* * *

11. The day that Sasuke shoves Chidori through his heart, Naruto visits Kyuubi for what he believes to be the time.

The fox tells him that he is dying, and he says that he knows that already. The fox tells him that he is an idiot for trusting Uchiha Sasuke, the fool who would not heed his warning, and he says that he knows that as well.

Then Kyuubi says, **"We can stop this, you know."**

Naruto turns, "How?"

"**We can make a deal, enter a partnership,"** the bijuu spat, **"Let me make this clear, human: I am neither your friend nor your companion. I am only suggesting this because I refuse to die at the hands of an **_**Uchiha**_**."**

"What's in it for me?" the Hokage asks.

"**A small gift. I believe your friend from the desert calls his new ability "Jinchuuriki Puberty." What a lie that is,"** Kyuubi said, **"I will control your sage chakra for you, instead of using clones or having those withered old toads do it for you. You will also gain the honour of being the only human that I have willingly let sit atop my head."**

The blonde paused to think for a minute, "What keeps you from killing me the moment that I enter your cage?"

"**You have my word, and I swear upon Inari-sama that I will keep it."**

Naruto takes a deep breath before walking passed the bars of the giant cage.

* * *

12. The day that they let him out of the hospital, Naruto arranges a meeting with the Kazekage. When the two village leaders are alone in his office, the blonde takes out a knife and cuts off his own hand. Gaara raises a hairless eyebrow as he watches another one grow from the bloody stump.

"Tell me everything," the Kazekage says.

* * *

13. Of all the titles that he has accumulated over the years, Naruto believes that his second favourite (Hokage being number one, of course) is the one regarding his bingo book rating.

Because when he sees the enemy fleeing from him, the second S-Ranked Konoha nin in history to have blonde hair and blue eyes, Naruto likes to shout after them, "WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?! I'M ONLY A GENIN!"

* * *

14. People wondered for years whether Naruto was secretly a masochist, as he keeps trying to get Sakura angry, which generally resulted in him getting wacked over the head.

The truth is that Sakura is beautiful when she is angry, a fact that most males can attest to (Lee the most eagerly and Sasuke the most grudgingly). Her goody-two-shoes act drops like a cheap genjutsu, revealing the real _her_.

And Naruto loves _her_, the real Sakura, so much so that he will risk life and limb to see _her_ everyday.

* * *

15. People have also wondered why Naruto never considered Hinata as a potential girlfriend. It is not that he does not find her attractive. Quite the opposite in fact. Naruto believes that Hinata is a very beautiful young woman, but she is just not what he is looking for.

Hinata is like a candle. Her flame is graceful and controlled. She can light up a room just by standing in it. As beautiful as the candle is, it is not what Naruto wants.

Naruto wants a bonfire, raging and untameable. He wants flame that will light up the night sky, sending smoke into the farthest reaches of the heavens so that people can see it coming a mile away.

But Naruto knows a man who can appreciate the subtle elegance of the candle. So he points Hinata in the general direction of Inuzuka Kiba.

* * *

16. During the years that he and Sakura were together, the male portion of the Konoha 12 kept telling Naruto to man up and pop the question all ready.

What they do not know is that the Hokage was ready to marry his girlfriend the moment she said "I love you" in the hospital that day. He even had the ring. But, he thought he would be courteous and ask her parents permission first.

The problem is that Sakura's parents are hard core Kyuubi haters.

Naruto asks them everyday for the next seven years if he can marry their daughter.

Whether they agreed so that he would finally go away or that they were actually giving him their permission is still up to debate.

* * *

17. Naruto's wedding was something to be remembered, but never discussed. If you were to ask any Konoha citizen about what happened, all they would ever say is that "Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong."

Leave it up to your imagination.

* * *

18. It is not a well known fact, but when Sakura tells him that she is pregnant, Naruto cries like a baby. He sheds tears of joy in his wife's arms because not only has it finally hit home that he has a family, but that he is going to be a father, too.

* * *

19. It is well known that during the time that Sakura was in labour, Naruto has to shape shift to repair his legs five times, his arms three times, and regrow a certain piece of male anatomy twice.

Gaara does not know that about half of the girlish screams he heard on the outside were in fact Naruto's, not Sakura's.

* * *

20. When Naruto realizes that, yes, he is in the past, and yes, that is Uchiha Sasuke sitting next to him, and no, he has not lost what little sanity he has left, he nearly has a panic attack. But he does not, because Sakura has just walked into the room.

"Do you want to sit down, Sakura-chan?" he asks, motioning to the seat next to him.

Then he looks at her, and sees _her_, the real Sakura, not that fake imitation her twelve year old self showed all the time.

"Sure," she answers and slides in next to him.

Naruto's hand crawls over, inch by inch, and slowly intertwines a single finger with hers.

Because he is not what the legend says he is.

He is just a man. And behind every man, there is an even stronger woman.

Naruto needs Sakura.

Now more than ever.

* * *

**The muffins return!**

**Well, now that I got that out of my system I believe explainations are in order.**

**Number 7: Apparently it gets harder to learn things like reading and writing the older you are. Naruto sort of taught himself what he needed to survive when it came to words, but must of it came from Jiraiya and...well..his 'novels'. As for the Iruka thing, I just wanted to break with the tradition of making Iruka the only one that really teaches him anything at school.**

**Number 8: This is my contribution to the yaoi community. Don't expect a lot more.**

**Number 9: It's just this little theory that I have, along with my hope that Naruto actually has some for of flesh-and-blood family out there.**

**Number 10: Now this here is my brain child. I seriously doubt that I will ever create a story that goes along with it, but if you want to, PM me and I can fill you in on some details as well as give you some free publicity.**

**Number 11: I got the idea when I saw Kirabi on top of the Hachibi's head. Also, I wanted to demonstrate the difference between Kyuubi and Shukaku's relationships with their containers.**

**Number 17: What ever you come up with, it happened.**

**That's all for now.**

**Have you seen the newest manga chapters? I've come to a conclusion about Nagato since reading them: He really needs a shink. Though the Toad Sage/Kyuubi eyes are very, very cool.**

**Later,**

**Whitefox**


	5. Sasuke: The Man Who Should Have Been

****

**I was trying to write Sakura. Really! She was just being difficult, so I ended up giving Sasuke a tribute.**

**Oh well, enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: Whitefox does not own Naruto. She does own this ideas of the different timelines, so if you want to use them in a story of yours, ask for permission first. Thank you and have a nice day.**

* * *

**Sasuke: The Man Who Should Have Been**

1. Uchiha Sasuke is one of the most interesting men in the Elemental Nations. Not because of who he is, but who he could have – _should have_ – been. While in this lifetime, he is the Orochimaru to Naruto's Jiraiya, in others he is not. In some other parallel universe, he is the hero of this story.

In some, he is merely an innocent victim of a madman's war.

These are the stories of Uchiha Sasuke. This is what he could have become if fate had dealt him the other cards.

* * *

2. In another lifetime, Sasuke is never born. In his place is a beautiful baby girl named Sugako.

Sugako is not fit to be a ninja. Her chakra coils are underdeveloped to the point where she can barely stand up. She is doomed to a life sitting in a wheelchair, wasting away as the world travels on without her.

This is her fate, and she accepted it a long time ago.

But then why does she feel compelled to write stories as she waits for death, tales of a gallant samurai warrior who struggles to find the truth about his illusive past? Why does she feel a deep, painful tug in her chest when she thinks of that blonde boy with the whisker marks on his cheeks?

When the Uchiha clan is wiped out, there are no survivors. When Hatake Kakashi finds her body, he is surprised that forensics say that Itachi killed Sugako quickly and cleanly and that the girl did not even try to fight back.

What forensics does not tell him is that Itachi cried for the first and only time that night as he held his dying sister.

* * *

3. In another lifetime, Sasuke does not make it in time to protect Naruto from Haku's senbon needles. Enraged, distraught, and horrified by the blonde's death, his Mangekyu awakens and the Hyouton user's last memories on earth are of a world clocked in black and a sky that is stained red.

As Sasuke wipes the tears of blood from his face and turns towards Naruto, he realizes that revenge such a petty thing. His friend is dead, just like his family is dead, and killing Haku or Itachi will not ever bring them back.

And that is when Sasuke's ambition dies.

It stays that way too, even after Naruto opens his eyes and starts to cough up blood.

* * *

4. In another lifetime, Sasuke's body is taken over by Orochimaru. He is unable to resist the ritual and his conscience is shoved into the corners of the Snake Sannin's mind to rot for all eternity.

It is only then that Orochimaru pulls his most outrageous move yet. He tries to assassinate Tsuande in broad daylight.

The keyword being _tries_.

He is stopped, not by the Hokage or Naruto or even Sakura, but by Uchiha Itachi. No one knows exactly how he did it, as most of it happened behind the veil of the Tsukuyomi, but whatever was, it was enough to knock the numbers of the Sannin down to two.

Itachi, weary and tired, only has enough strength to limp towards the memorial stone and carve Sasuke name in with a kunai before passing on.

* * *

5. In another lifetime, Sasuke looses himself to the cursed seal.

The battle with his brother costs him dearly, and now his skin is permanently dyed grey and his hair is forever long and the wings will not go away. His mind is blank and his eyes are soulless as he wanders the land in search of answers for questions he no longer has.

One day he walks through a pair of green gates that reveal a village that is almost hidden amongst the leaves of the forest surrounding it. As he passes through the streets, the citizens scream and back against the walls of the buildings. Then they catch a glimpse of his eyes and the whispers begin.

"Uchiha," they say, "But he's supposed to be dead."

He stops at the base of a red tower, at the top of it is a circle with some marking painted on it (a part of him says "Fire," but it is a very small part). He opens his wings and flies to the window on the top floor.

And inside are three men (Red, Yellow, and Black he calls them) and a woman (Pink). Red notices him first, pointing and yelling and pushing Pink behind him. Black looks but does not see, which he finds. Yellow rushes for the window and pulls him inside as soon as it is open.

And amidst all the startled gasps and the crying and the embraces, he cannot help but wonder…

Who is this Sasuke?

* * *

6. In another lifetime, Sasuke does not go traitor. Someone else does, though.

The note says that he is trying to save them, that he is too much of a danger to remain among them. Because _they_ know where he is and if he stays in the village much longer, everyone will all be in peril.

Sasuke is terrified. He fears for Chouji, who stayed behind to fight that plant guy. He fears for Neji, who is battling the explosive specialist. He fears for Kiba, who fell over the cliff with that hunchback freak. He fears for Shikamaru, who is fighting the silver haired man. He fears for Lee, who saved him from that blue guy who was with Itachi that day.

And as Sasuke stands on the statue of the Shodai Hokage, he is able to see the face of the person who they have all been chasing on the head of Madara.

"NARUTO!" he calls out. The blonde turns towards him and the Uchiha can just barely make out blood red eyes in the place of his normal royal blue ones.

"Yo…ya freggin' bastard."

* * *

7. In another lifetime, Sasuke is killed in the Valley of the End. It is not because Naruto was too powerful for him to manage, or that he collapses from lack of chakra.

He dies because small, weak, little Haruno Sakura decides to come along with the rescue team.

She has seen her comrades stay behind to participate in fights against monsters that are way beyond their skill level. She has seen Lee drag himself halfway across the country in order to save her and Naruto. She has seen the look in Sasuke's eyes that tells her that he is going to kill Naruto, and he is going to enjoy it. She has seen it all and she has yet to break.

But when the Uchiha puts Chidori through the blonde's lung, she snaps and runs at him with a kunai.

It is only as his bloody body sinks to the bottom of the river, with his eyes open and his mouth frozen in a silent scream that Sakura allows herself to cry.

* * *

8. In another lifetime, Itachi never becomes a double agent. This sets off a series of events that most people would never see coming.

For one, Konoha falls into a state of civil war. The coup is successful and the Sandaime and the council are killed, but there is a small resistance that wants throw Fugaku from his thrown and bring democracy back. Jiraiya leads the rebellion with Tsuande as its chief healer.

Sasuke is captured one day when he is sixteen and brought back to the rebel base, located in the remnants of the Hyuuga compound. He does not remember how long he was kept in the damp and dark cell, but when he is literally dragged out by the ear by a brunette with her hair done up in buns and sees the life that the rebels have to lead in order to survive under Uchiha rule, he begins to question which side he should really be on.

This is only solidified when he watches a woman's baby die from lack of medical supplies. The mother's cries of "Hoshika! Hoshika!" will probably haunt him until his death.

When he starts giving them information out of his own free will, at first, people are suspicious. But then this blonde kid with whisker marks on his face vouches for him, so things start looking up.

The boy's name is Uzumaki Naruto, Sasuke discovers, and he is Jiraiya's apprentice. His girlfriend, Haruno Sakura, scares him to death with her ability to finger flick people through brick walls one minute and then go all lovey-dovey with Naruto the next. But they stick up for him as he slowly takes his place among the rebels, and that is all it takes for him to open up to them.

The rebels are a mix of every country that the Uchiha Empire has taken over. Naruto introduces him to a red headed boy from Suna named Gaara and his green haired 'we're-not-together-even-though-we-like-to-make-out' friend Fu, a rather feminine male named Haku, as well as an older blonde woman named Samui. They do not trust him, no one will, so Sasuke usually sits alone at the mess hall in the far back corner and picks at his food.

After he takes six kunai to the back for Jiraiya in a battle he has no business fighting in, he wakes up in the medic tent to find a Konoha hitai-ate (the true identification of a person loyal to Konoha, not the Uchiha) by his futon. He does not really know whether to laugh or cry.

But eventually, when he is in the company of people that love him for who is really is instead of who is father is, he does both.

* * *

9. In another lifetime, Sasuke does not get the chance to meet up with Juugo at the North Base. Instead he learns the dangers of eating tomato soup.

You see, tomatoes have a strong taste and the broth is quite easy for an assassin to hide poison in. And Karin knows this very, _very_ well.

So when Sasuke's vision starts to blur and his body stops responding to his brain's commands, he finally gets it. Even though the red head is completely infatuated with him to the point where she will steal his bloody shirts, she is still human.

She is still a kunoichi.

The last thing that Sasuke sees is Karin wrapping her fingers around Suigetsu's (whose confused face is now as red as a beet). She leans in and whispers something in the former Kiri-nin's ear, and the Uchiha knows that it is only loud enough just to spite him in his last moments.

"What do you think about becoming a Konoha shinobi?"

He should have known – _stupid, stupid Sasuke_ – he should have known.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

* * *

10. In another lifetime, Kyuubi no Youko never attacks Konoha. This sets off a series of events that no one in their right mind will ever be able to fully understand.

For one, Sasuke would smile. A lot. In fact, he would smile so much that many of the Uchiha clan members (who would still be alive, as the coup never occurred) believe him to be adopted.

Sasuke would not have a small battalion of fangirls following him around through out his academy days. They would belong to Namikaze Naruto, son of the Yondaime, and already a chuunin at the age of twelve. Sasuke would want to be just like his brother's friend, Naruto-sempai, but then again so did everyone else in his class.

Another interesting note would be the complete role reversal of Sasuke and Karin's relationship as it would be Sasuke that would blush in her presence, Sasuke that would seek her attention, Sasuke that occasionally steel her glasses, and Karin that would give him the cold shoulder.

Well, either that or she would be as dense as Naruto when it comes to relationships.

Sasuke would live a happy and relatively long life for someone in the ninja business. He would die in the epic battle against Uchiha Madara and eight of the nine bijuu at the age of thirty. Rock Lee's last act before succumbing to the fate of those who open the Hachimon Tonko no Jinis to fling Sasuke onto the head of the Kyuubi in a desperate attempt to gain eye contact and break the spell of the Sharingan.

As the great fox tossed and turned after the genjutsu is released, Sasuke falls through the air and slams into the ground. He is killed instantly.

His only real regret is that he lost the bold, beautiful and deadly Karin to Suigetsu.

* * *

11. In another lifetime, Sasuke basically tells Madara to take his story and shove it somewhere painful.

Twice.

It is not that he does not believe his long dead ancestor. On the contrary, Sasuke does not doubt a single word that came out of the man's mouth. But Sasuke still has his morals and there are just certain lines that you do not cross in this world.

Itachi loved Konoha, so much that he gave up everything he was in order to protect it. As his younger brother, Sasuke is going to respect his wishes and not lay a finger on its inhabitants.

The members of Team Hebi all go their separate ways. Juugo finds a nice girl to settle down with in the south. She looks a lot like Kimimaro, he said, and that is enough to calm his killing instincts. Suigetsu just walks off one day after a particularly bad fight with Karin; Sasuke has not seen or heard of him since. Karin leaves after _finally_ getting the message that he was not interested. They parted ways at a border town in the Land of Grass.

Sasuke travels north to Tori no Kuni. He does not know exactly how long he has been walking; all he really knows is that he wants to go home. Not back to Oto, not to the Uchiha, but home. A place where there is a little pink haired girl declaring her eternal love to him. A place where there is a scrawny blonde idiot in an orange jumpsuit that is too freaking stubborn to ever let him go.

But Sasuke knows he can never return, not without a full pardon or being in a body bag.

He needs a place to stay, Sasuke realizes one day. It is kind of cold, he has enough money, there is an orphanage up the street and…is that Naruto?

Is that ITACHI?!

Sasuke never gets the room, he is on the road again before he knows it; his brother on his left, his best friend on his right, and pardon in his hand.

He still does not know what to make of it.

* * *

12. In another lifetime, Sasuke becomes the jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi no Youko.

He does not understand why his father does not look at him. He does not understand why his mother is never there. He does not understand why Itachi mumbles an excuse to leave every time he steps into the room.

Sasuke just does not understand why he is so different.

Everyone – _everyone_ – hates him, even people he does not know. And he has this voice in the back of his head telling him to do things that he really does not want to do.

Eight year old Uchiha Sasuke is so terrified of himself that on his birthday, he leaps off the roof of his family home in an attempt to kill himself.

It does not work.

He stabs himself in the gut with a kunai and wakes up three hours later covered in his own dried blood.

He tries years later to get himself killed on a mission. He makes it back alive. His teammates do not.

When Sasuke finally meets with the monster that his own father sealed inside of his body, sacrificing his mother's life in the process, he understands. It is the Kyuubi's ultimate revenge on the Uchiha clan: he has made Sasuke immortal.

He cannot age and he cannot die. Sasuke is doomed to live as all those he loved would wither away.

Because Sasuke is jinchuuriki, there truly is no end for him.

* * *

13. In another lifetime, Sasuke does not go willingly with the Sound Four to Otogakure. But since Orochimaru is not going to take no for an answer, Jirobo knocks the Uchiha out with his Chakra Kyūin no Jutsu while Sakon shoves the Seishingan down his throat and then the four of them stuff him in the bucket that they have lugged halfway across the continent.

When Sasuke finally emerges from his death-like trance, he does not laugh with his back to Naruto.

He screams.

The blonde does not find his best friend standing on the head of Uchiha Madara. Naruto finds Sasuke kneeling at the edge of the river, staring at his own reflection. His words are not, "Hey dumbass" or anything like that.

Sasuke manages – _just manages­ _– to say, "I can't make it go away" to the only person who could possibly understand him.

Kakashi arrives at the Valley of the End not to see an unconscious Naruto and an abandoned hitai-ate, but two friends…no, two brothers speaking softly about their burdens. And he just knows that those two are going to be legends someday.

* * *

14. In another lifetime, it is Sasuke that is the older brother to Itachi.

It does not make much of a difference though, only that the clan got to live about a year or two longer. Itachi is and will always be a genius, while Sasuke would be constantly overshadowed by him.

But when Itachi does kill off his family, Sasuke just knows something is wrong with his little brother's story. He says his "older brother instincts" are telling him that the weasel is lying through his teeth.

Sasuke gets his wish and learns of the truth. So when Akatsuki comes to take that blonde squirt from the guy who writes the Icha Icha series, he does not charge up a Chidori and run down the hallway screaming bloody murder. He calmly walks up to Itachi, punches him in the face, calls him a "fucking idiot" and then embraces him.

Hoshigaki Kisame becomes a vegetable right then and there.

* * *

15. In another lifetime, shinobi do not exist. That sets off a series of events that _no one_ would ever believe.

This world is a lot like ours: people travel by car and truck, not on high speed legs; they fight with guns and explosives, not fists and kunai. No one has even heard of chakra, much less has it.

Sasuke lives a fairly normal life on the outside: he has got good grades, he is well respected amongst his peers, and he is getting a scholarship to some place up in the north. The University of Oto, they called it. It is where all the sports geniuses go, and he was hand picked by the President himself, Hebi Orochimaru.

So, seeking prestige and glory, Sasuke leave behind his friends: Naruto, the yakuza-wannabe; Sakura, the girl who loved him; Kakashi, the closest thing he has had to a father since his brother had murdered his real one.

Sasuke runs from them for power, and he gets it. The University's little secret to success is that over half of its famed athletes are on steroids provided by some guy named Juugo. Sasuke uses them to increase his physical abilities in order to kill the man he once called brother.

But this false power comes at a price. Sasuke's body begins to break down and the day before he graduates from University, he is admitted to the Hospital. His condition is fatal.

Uchiha Sasuke dies not in an epic gun fight with his deranged brother, Itachi, but surrounded by the three people who he left behind. Naruto's become the Yakuza boss and has actually transformed it from a group of third-rate criminals to a vigilantly force helping the police clean up the streets. Sakura is in medical school, getting her PhD. Kakashi still has the same job of teaching English at Konoha Gakuen, but apparently with them gone, things have gotten quiet dull.

Sasuke tries to send them away when it happens. He fails though, and passes from this world to the next staring into the green eyes of Sakura (secret crush), his hand being held by Naruto's (best friend) slightly larger tanned one, and head resting on Kakashi's (father) lap.

Uchiha Sasuke dies happy, something that he has not been in a long time.

* * *

16. In another lifetime, Sasuke does not decide to become an Avenger. He realizes that his ultimate revenge upon Itachi is not to follow his instructions. Sure, he'll kill the man if the opportunity came up, but there are also several other people that are just as qualified to take down his murderous kinsman.

After all, Sasuke is not the only person affected by the Uchiha Massacre.

So Sasuke makes friends, creates bonds, and learns to rely on his own power, which will take him farther than any shortcut ever could. He encourages Naruto's dream to be Hokage, helps Gaara take his first steps into true humanity, and is the first of the Rookie 9 to take down an Akatsuki member.

Deidara did not stand a chance against the Uchiha when he threatened one of Sasuke's closest friends, the Kazekage himself.

Sasuke helps break the longstanding tradition against the Team 7s of the past. He does not become Orochimaru, the vile monster of the Sannin. He does not become Kakashi, the teenager lost in his father's shadow.

Uchiha Sasuke becomes himself. And that is all he will ever need to be.

* * *

17. In another lifetime, Uchiha Obito survives the fated mission in which he gives his Sharingan eye to Kakashi. This sets off a series of events that would cause many people to openly gape at.

Obito, not Kakashi, would be Team 7's sensei and would smack the arrogance right out of Sasuke on the first day. The older man, having been disowned shortly after returning from the mission in Kusa with only one eye, teaches his nephew that clan heritage and genetics mean squat when you have heart and determination to back up what you say. He does this by tying Sasuke – _not Naruto, not Sakura, but Sasuke _– to the log.

When the second part of the Chuunin Exams came along, Team 7's teamwork would be able to hold off Orochimaru long enough for Anko and a patrolling squad of ANBU to arrive. Sasuke would never get the Cursed Seal and would finish off Akado Yoroi so fast that Hayate, the quickest of the Tokubetsu Jonin, would be genuinely surprised.

Sasuke would make chuunin a year later with Naruto and Sakura, jonin at sixteen with Neji and (again) Naruto, and then enter the ANBU at eighteen.

When asked about his proudest moment, Sasuke would respond that it would be the look on his sensei's face when Rokudaime Hokage Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto promotes him to ANBU commander the day of his coronation.

He is secretly lying of course. His proudest moment occurs two weeks later when he escorts his tired, blind brother to the hospital and says three simple words.

"I forgive you."

* * *

18. In another lifetime, there is no coup. There is no uprising. There is no plan.

Itachi actually killed the clan to measure his capacity.

Sasuke life ends with a shuriken to his throat and bleeds out with his eyes on parents, his brother silently stepping over him, and an unanswered question on his mind:

"_Why?"_

* * *

19. In another lifetime, Sasuke kills Naruto in the Valley of the End. And it is then, and only then, does he finally break.

Kakashi arrives to find two bodies, both with lightning burns surrounding the holes in their chests. He carries them both back while Obito's eye cries tears that his own eye no longer has.

Naruto and Sasuke are given a joint funeral and are buried under the same gravestone. Sakura joins them a week later, dying from a broken heart.

Konoha is never the same.

Jiraiya disappears and never returns.

Tsuande once again takes up binge drinking and dies from alcohol poisoning.

Ino and Shikamaru simply drop out of the shinobi program.

Neji becomes more distant than he ever was.

Lee stops smiling.

Tenten starts to miss her targets.

Chouji never lets himself truly recover from his ingestion of his clans pills.

Kiba thinks that if Shino had been in his place, the mission would have gone differently.

Shino KNOWS that if he had been on the mission, it would have gone differently.

And Hinata?

Hinata goes insane and becomes the crazy berserker that the council sends out when they are too scared to give anyone normal a certain mission.

Konoha has lost its light, its darkness, and its sunrise. It has lost three of the most promising shinobi in a century and it will never recover.

* * *

20. In this lifetime, Sasuke dies young. He passes away at the age of twenty with his eyes on Itachi, his fist through Naruto's heart, and Sakura's hand through his head.

Sasuke watches over them from the beyond. He watches as his former teammates become a couple. He watches as his brother is slowly accepted back into Konoha society. He watches as Gaara takes _his_ place in _their_ hearts.

His family comes to him sometimes, throwing around words like "it was for the clan" and "you did what you needed to do." But they don't know why tried to kill Naruto; they will never be able to understand.

Sometimes Kakashi visits him. Sasuke thinks that the older man knows why he did it, if only because Kakashi has been there and he has done that, so if he has not guessed by now the Uchiha will be very disappointed in him.

Sasuke did what his brother did: he made a choice. One that carried great personal sacrifice either way he turned. And he choose the lesser of two terrible evils.

It was Naruto or everybody.

The Kyuubi no Yoko, the monstrous beast that lived in the blonde's belly, had to die, because if it did not, Madara's plan could succeed. They had relocated the Jinchuuriki of the Hachibi six months ago and extracted the bijuu from the seal on his forehead. The eye that would hold the Ichibi was too damaged from the failed extraction of Gaara so long ago to ever work again. But if Akatsuki got the Kyuubi, everything would be alright.

So if Naruto died, it would through a wrench in their plans because their time limit on the Gedo Mazo and its second blindfold was almost up.

Madara would lose.

Sasuke would die, but that did not matter.

"They had a kid," he muttered one day to Kakashi, "They named her Kushina, after Naruto's mother. She's got her mom's hair…and her dad's eyes."

"She's got Kyuubi's claws," the older man pointed out.

There is silence, and then, "Sakura asked Gaara to be the godfather."

The _"that should have been me"_ is left out.

Kakashi mourns for Sasuke, because he should have been there. He should have been there as Naruto's best man at the wedding. He should have been there, next to Sakura at the coronation.

Sasuke should have been there.

Kakashi mourns for Sasuke, the Man Who Should Have Been.

* * *

**Man, Sasuke's really got some bad luck hasn't he. I mean, he was killed nine times in this tribute. [holds up tally chart] Itachi gets him three times, Sakura twice, Karin and the Kyuubi each kill him once, then he ODs on steriods and commits suicide.**

**That's messed up.**

**Really messed up.**

**I'll try for Sakura again next time. Or maybe Tenten.**

**I need to write a girl, damn it.**

**Later,**

**Whitefox**


	6. The Elemental Nations

**I hate Vista.**

**Really, I hate it. I would have updated this a lot sooner if it hadn't deleted eight pages of writing because it had to do another useless update during the night. I saved the document correctly, too! There should have been no reason for it to lose it's memory.**

**So, yah, I hate Vista and who ever came up with the idea of it better start running right about...now.**

**Gaara has returned to the manga! I don't really like the guy who is supposed to be the Tsuchikage. Danzo's turning out to be interesting, but not enough for me to actually like him. The Mizukage on the other hand is cool in my books. If Kishi gives me a name for her, I will give her a spot in IDA.**

**Dead Jiraiya approves of the Godaime Mizukage!**

**Karin is getting freaked out by Sasuke chakra. I think it's kinda cool that she has that Minds Eye of the Kagura ability. I will admit that Karin was annoying at first, but she's grown on me.**

**So here we go: a tribute to the freaking continent because once again, Sakura and Tenten are giving me writters block.**

**Warning: There is some mentions of sex in this tribute. This fic is rated M for a reason, people.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, though I can say that I own the ideas behind Senji Gingo, the not-so-cannon Yondaime Mizukage, Uzumaki Karin the First, Aria Tabito, Sato Noriko, Forty Two, and Sota.

* * *

**

The Elemental Nations: The Things the Textbook Won't Tell You

1. The textbooks that are used in the academies of the Hidden Villages will tell you many things about the Elemental Nations. They can tell you about how there are a grand total of thirty-one countries; seventeen of which have some sort of shinobi village. It can tell you that the five main powers are Konohagakure, Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kirigakure, and Kumogakure. Each one is led by a single Kage and a council of elders.

The textbooks will tell you of Konoha, one of the most powerful villages in existence. They will inform you of Suna's belief that accomplishment of a mission predominates the lives of the ninja trying to complete it. They will show you Iwa's "rock headed attitude" and how they will fulfill their leaders orders, even if it means death. They will tell you of Kiri's strong and merciless army that will fight with their dying breaths. They will show you that Kumo's swordsmen are on par with and, in some cases, better that those of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shū.

Then they will explain the middle powers, known as Takigakure, Soragakure, and Yukigakure. They will show the devastation left on both sides of the battlefield from Taki's Hero Water. They will tell you of the technological advances made by both Sora and Yuki, giving shinobi the ability to fight in the air.

Finally, they will introduce the lower powers: Amegakure, Getsugakure, Hoshigakure, Kagero Village, Kusagakure, Otogakure, Yugakure, Uzugakure, and Takumi Village. Not much will be mentioned about them; just a small acknowledgement that they are there, a list of possible jutsus and weaponry, as well as their allies. This is understandable, since Ame is a black hole when it comes to information, Kusa stays neutral no matter the situation, and Yu stopped taking missions a long time ago.

But what are not mentioned in the textbook are the secrets that each Hidden Village has. Some are dark and dangerous, some are absolutely fascinating, and some are just plain weird.

And when these secrets come out, no one will ever look at the Elemental Nations the same way again.

* * *

2. Since the appointment of the Godaime Kazekage, Sabaku no Gaara, Sunagakure as gone through some dramatic changes. The first of which was the end of the civil war with Taki, one that had been eating up the money in the treasury for almost five years. This triggered the end to the village's near depression and freed up enough cash to fund a proper academy to train new shinobi, instead of the old apprenticeship program of the past.

Then he does something so completely out of the blue that no one knows what to make of it: Gaara legalizes same-sex marriage.

Sure there are rumours as to why he did it, but no hard fact. Not even his siblings get a straight answer, just a strange look and a quick change of topic.

Gaara is eighteen when his secret comes out. It happens in the market place with one of the councilman, Joseki, a long time supporter of the Yondaime Kazekage. The older man is a sucker for tradition and has wanted an excuse to boot the red head out of office for a while.

So Joseki accuses the Kazekage of being gay.

Gaara calmly corrects him, saying that he is not gay and is in fact attracted to women.

The councilman begins to laugh, but stops when he sees the look in the red head's eyes. One that made the eighteen year old look like a small child, screaming _"Lookatmelookatmelookatmeplease!"_

"I have been denied love for too many years," Gaara says quietly, "I do not wish for anyone else to go through that kind of pain."

As he walks off he leave countless people staring at his back, not really knowing what to think about what their young leader just said.

This is one of the few times that Temari has cried in public, that Kankuro has let her hold him in front of a crowd, and that Baki has looked away in shame.

* * *

3. Despite being known as a group of jolly tree-huggers by the other villages, Konoha's history is littered with secrets. The village itself is built atop of the remains of the original home of the Fuma Clan, an enemy of the Senju clan that was second only to the Uchiha. Then there was the trading of the bijuu that Hashirama had under his control to create treaties with the other nations.

But these are nothing in comparison to Konoha's darkest secret. It is not the betrayal of Uchiha Madara, the truth behind the Uchiha massacre, or how the council was able to scam Kumo out of getting their hands on the Byakugan.

Konoha's most sinister secret is that Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto is _not_ their first jinchuuriki.

Hashirama was only interested in giving the bijuu to the countries that would later become the Five Great Shinobi Villages. He kept the Nanabi no Kabutomushi for himself. When the Nidaime Kazekage managed to turned his own son, Shinji, into the first ever jinchuuriki during the Second War, Senju Tobirama decides to do the same.

Senju Gingo, the only child of the Nidaime Hokage, is Konoha's first jinchuuriki. Gifted with the power to control poisons, he becomes a deadly weapon of the village. Few could stand up to him in battle.

He is seven years old.

Gingo manages to survive the war with all of his limbs intact, which is not saying much considering the massive amount of casualties that nearly cut their shinobi force in half. But after it, he is no longer needed. The Nidaime Hokage is forced into imprisoning his son by the council and Gingo is thrown aside like yesterday's trash.

He does not take that too well.

During the third week of his incarceration, his prison guard mutters something about "foul demons." Gingo's red-yellow eyes pop open and he transforms into the Nanabi. Six massive wings and a single stinger break open the walls of his cell and Gingo flies skyward.

Three things happen because of that day. The first is that both the retired Shodai and the active Nidaime loose their lives retraining and extracting the Nanabi from Gingo.

Then the Sandaime, Sarutobi Hiruzen, would literally shove the pot containing the sealed bijuu into the hands of the shinobi leader of Takigakure because he feared its power.

Finally, there is a law created stating that any jinchuuriki that Konoha may create in the near to distant future would never be used as a weapon and never learn of the monster inside of it. This is the law that Danzo and the rest of the council have been trying to make the Sandaime and Godaime Hokage break ever since Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto's birth.

When Naruto discovers this secret, hidden amongst the scrolls in the back of his storage room, he spends five days trying to find the location of Senju Gingo's grave.

He is the first and only person to ever leave flowers on it.

* * *

4. Kirigakure is known as the most bloody and vicious country in the history of the Elemental Nations. Among other things, it is infamous for the Bloodline hunts that its shinobi participate in under the direction of the Yondiame Mizukage.

But why would the Yondiame be so willing to send promising warriors into battle to fight their own people? Why is the Yondiame so afraid of clans possessing a kekkei genkai that he would declare them to be sub-human?

The truth is that he knows exactly how a Bloodline Limit is formed.

The human genetic code does not just mutant randomly to form things like the Sharingan. It takes something incredibly powerful, as well as unnatural, to change something that has been in the works for tens of thousands of years.

Something like massive amounts of radiation from a nuclear bomb or direct contact with pure yokai.

Kirigakure is the absolute worst country when it comes to fuinjutsu. So much so that any jinchuuriki that they create is guaranteed to die sometime between when they turn eleven and nineteen. The seal will fail, the bijuu will escape, and then no one is safe.

Momochi Zabuza remembers the day like it was yesterday. The Sanbi no Kyodaigame had escaped from its former container, a solemn purple eyed girl, and had begun to attack Kiri. He and his best friend, Hoshigaki Kisame, are forced on to the front lines to lead the attack as the newest members of the Kiri no Shinobigatana Nananin Shū.

Fighting the bijuu was hell; that day Zabuza saw too many good men and women being drowned in a way no Kiri-nin was supposed to. But things momentarily look up as he spots Kisame standing a top the Sanbi's head, his sword, the Samehada, raised over his head.

And then it happens: Kisame plunges his sword into the monster's left eye. The Sanbi roars in pain and sends out a blue-grey wave of yokai.

Zabuza is on the edge of the blast zone when he is hit. He wakes up in the hospital about a week later to discover that he has gills on the side of his neck. It is around this time that he starts to wear a mask made of bandages.

Hozuki Suigetsu and Mangetsu are a little farther in, trying to prove that they can be just as great as the famed Swordsmen of legend. The older of the two brothers spots the incoming threat before Suigetsu and leaps in front of him.

Mangetsu is liquefied on the spot. Suigetsu gains the ability to turn his body into water.

And then there is Kisame.

Before the Battle of the Ocean (as it would be called in later years), Kisame had floppy brown hair, dark brown eyes, and a smile that was to die for. The yokai channelled up the Samehada, transforming it from a slim rapier into the monstrosity that it is today, and into him. His skin and hair turns blue, his eyes shrink, and Kisame becomes a freak.

It is around that time that one of the councilwomen shows up with her six month old son, Yagura, in tow. She seals the Sanbi into the boy, using her life force to bind the seal. Yagura dies when he is eleven and a new batch of bloodlines are created before the bijuu escapes into the depths of the ocean.

The most ironic part of the Yondiame Mizukage's campaign is that Kiri it the number one creator of kekkei genkai in written history.

* * *

5. Konohagakure likes to believe that it is the first hidden village to have kunoichi among their ranks. This is a lie.

The first kunoichi came from the smaller village of Uzugakure; the only village to have a still have a royal line of shinobi.

Queen Uzumaki Karin, who is the great grandmother of Kushina and also the woman that Shun would later name his own daughter after, rules over her people with a gentle hand. She is the first woman to ever take the post as the leader of her village, but it's not against their rules: the first child inherits under Uzu law, no matter what sex it happens to be.

Many of the countries at the time believe her to be weak because of her gender. So when the Shodai Tsuchikage invites her to a meeting, Karin is not surprised to be ambushed by a squad of Iwagakure chuunin.

The Shodai walks into his office the next day to see her sitting in his chair, a large lumpy bag at her feet and one of her ornamental chopstick that she used to pull her hair out of the way in her hand. The man then literally spends twenty minutes ranting about how women were weak and useless and would only be a distraction to men in the line of duty.

Karin smiles and then calmly asks whose shinobi it was again that got "their asses kicked by the weak and useless woman" as blood begins to puddle out of the bag and stain his brown carpet.

The Tsuchikage sees red, but then quickly pales when he realizes that the chopstick in her hand is not a hair ornament at all.

It's a poison laced senbon dart.

The Shodai runs from the red headed woman, whose laughter would haunt him to his dying days.

Soon after, nearly every shinobi village implements some sort of kunoichi program.

Iwa, though, does not simply because they hate to lose.

* * *

6. Iwagakure finally gets its wake-up concerning kunoichi after the death of its Yondaime, Ryotenbin no Onoki. He becomes the first Kage in history not to die in battle. Instead, Onoki dies in the hospital, surrounded by friends and family, an ulcer in his stomach.

His will dictates that he wants Aria Tabito to succeed him. No one really objects to that, as the name Nadare no Tabito is spoken among the other countries with fearful respect. Even the legendary Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto was hard pressed to defeat him in a friendly competition (one that got slightly out of hand).

But surrounding the young man are mysteries: why he will not bathe in front of someone during missions, why he has never had in interest in girls, and why Tabito, Naruto, and Gaara have started getting along so smashingly?

All of their questions are answered the day that Tabito takes his position as Tsuchikage.

Instead of a man with electric orange hair and neon blue eyes in the standard jonin uniform, a woman with electric orange hair and neon blue eyes in a dress that shows off a heck of a lot of cleavage takes the brown hat from the stunned elder and announces herself to the shell-shocked crowd as Aria Tabito, Godaime Tsuchikage.

The silence is then broken by a whoop of joy.

"Oh yeah!" shouts Naruto, "I knew she would do it! Gaara, you owe me money!"

The Kazekage, who is standing beside him on the tower, sighs and starts to count out bills into the blonde's waiting palm.

As it turns out, Tabito had been disguising her true gender for almost thirteen years now. Having heard the stories about women warriors in other countries, she took it upon herself at the age of eight to prove to Iwa that women could fight just as well as men.

Her disguise was perfect; in fact the only person to ever discover her secret was Gaara. The Kazekage is worse than a shark when it comes to sensing blood and was wondering throughout Tabito's battle with Naruto why a man was having his period.

Gaara put two and two together and got four. He told Tabito his findings afterwards in front of Naruto, who promptly passed out.

After being assured that they would reveal her secret, the odd friendship between the Kazekage, the Hokage, and the gifted explosives artist began.

The first thing that Tabito does as Tsuchikage is to implement a kunoichi program.

The next thing she does is to work together with Suna and Konoha to shut down Iwa's slave market, one that was said to be the largest in written history.

* * *

7. Most people believe that Kumogakure wants a Hyuuga for one of two reasons. The first and most popular theory is that the Raikage will implement a breeding program on any Hyuuga they happen to capture that will help establish a branch clan in their village. Others believe that a team of scientists will try to recreate the Byakugan (or a mutated version of it) through a series of Orochimaru-class experiments.

Both theories are wrong.

Kumo does not want to steal the Byakugan from Konohagakure.

Kumo want Konoha to return the Byakugan to its rightful homeland.

The foggy mountains just to the north of the village provide a natural defence against any kind of invader. In fact, the only way to safely navigate through the passage is to have some sort of all-seeing eye.

Or a heck of a lot of dumb luck, as Senju Hashirama would later discover.

As he was traveling through Rai no Kuni, the future Hokage would somehow stumble upon the Hyuuga's home, save their leader's first daughter from a freak accident, and then negotiate an alliance with the clan before the sun went down that day. The Hyuuga and its kekkei genkai follow Hashirama back to his home in Hi no Kuni and would later become one of his greatest allies.

The funny thing is that clan leader's grandchild, Hiashi, would later have his own daughter's life saved by Hashirama's grandchild, Tsuande, when she returns to the village. The soon-to-be Godaime would take one look at Hinata and repair the damage Neji did to her heart, lungs, and chakra system in the blink of an eye.

Hiashi's unwavering loyal to Tsuande begins that day.

It's odd how history manages to repeat itself when no one it looking.

* * *

8. Say what you want about him, but Nagato was one of the best damn things that ever happened to Amegakure. Hanzo's rule of terror cast a spell of darkness over the village, driving neighbour against neighbour, friend against friend, and brother against sister.

Then the entity known only as Pein descended against the Salamander with the wrath of god, bringing with him the swift hand of justice and a power that only a fool would fight against.

But that was not the only thing Nagato did under the guise of a god. He created shelter for the homeless. He provided food for the starving. He built schools for the uneducated.

Nagato banished Ame's fear and gave its people a reason to want to wake up in the morning.

He gave the country a reason to cry anymore.

When Konoha returned the seven blackened bodies of their leader – _of their hope_ – of Ame, one of the largest funerals in history takes place. Mourners came from across the country to try to connect one more time with Nagato. Long speeches were made in front of weeping crowds about how their god had been realised from his mortal bodies. They talk about what he did for them, how he had saved them, and how his was now gone.

But no one talks about what they will do next.

Until she stands up.

Sato Noriko, a kunoichi of their village, steps in front of the crowd and yells at them. She tells them how they are insulting Pein by weeping for him, instead of continuing his legacy in shaping Ame into something they can all be proud of. She calls them cowards, she calls them fools, and they slowly begin to support her and her ambition to get Ame back on it's feet again.

Noriko is not a god. She's not an angel, either.

Noriko is as human as they get, and that's probably why she is promoted to village leader at the age of fourteen and three-quarters.

This, of course, smashed the previous record of youngest shinobi leader set by Sabaku no Gaara. Noriko has yet to let him live it down.

* * *

9. Kumogakure likes to say that they are the first nation to come up with the idea of the ANBU. This is true. However, the original design has only been improved on in one country: Takigakure.

ANBU is traditionally made up of three departments: the Black Ops, the Hunters, and Intel. The Black Ops get the fancy swords and armour. The Hunters receive their cloaks and the equipment used to destroy bodies. And Intel…well, no one really knows what they wear.

No one ever sees them. They are just that good.

Taki, however, has a fourth division, known only as Forty-Two. Forty-two does not officially exist. It is made up of shinobi and kunoichi that have nothing to lose, who have no need for glory, and who will no be missed if they die.

Forty-two agents do not wear hitai-ate. This is because they are usually deployed into areas where the presence a Taki shinobi would be, at best, a cause for war. They are trained in non-Taki jutsu, use non-Taki weaponry, and deploy non-Taki strategy for this reason as well.

They are told to succeed by any means necessary, because if they fail there are no reinforcements coming. No back up will be provided from their village. Instead, their leader will release their files to Takumi Village (the universal distributer of the Bingo Book) and officially the Forty-Two were never sent.

The concept of Forty-Two was created by a man named Kakuzu. Ironically, he is the first to fall to its harsh life. One minute he is trying to nurse his wounds from his failed assassination on Senju Hashirama and the next he is running full tilt from his own people.

Today Forty-Two is staffed by close to fifty shinobi and kunoichi, ranging in the ranks from green genin to seasoned jonin. The strongest of them is a seventeen year old girl named Fu. She specializes in poison.

Fu's last mission is to assassinate Sabaku no Gaara while he is on his way to the peace talks with Taki. She never even gets to try, as she is ambushed by Konan of Akatsuki and dragged off to their lair to extract the Nanabi from the seal on her fore arm.

Shibuki does not even blink when the Kazekage enters his office, alive and well. He had originally assigned Fu to Forty-Two in hopes that she would foul up on a mission and get herself killed.

Fu was jinchuuriki, and that alone made her a monster deserving of death in his eyes.

* * *

10. After the nearly continent-wide creation of kunoichi programs, there was still heavy debate as to whether or not the things that these women were doing on missions were bringing dishonour to their families back home.

Kunoichi were becoming a different class of warrior, a different breed of spy. They are ready to sing, dance, and strip of secrets. Sex to them was as much of a tool as the tantos that many shinobi favoured as a weapon. Kunoichi were shunned by their male peers as cheats, using their feminine charms to not provide an honourable fight.

It is Yukigakure that finally steps up and creates a series of laws to protect kunoichi against prosecution. Most of it is about giving the female fighters equal rights to their male comrades, but there is one law that stands out like a bloodstain on a white sheet.

Law 58-J of the Kunoichi Act dictates that no kunoichi of any race, culture, village of origin, and political status can be disinherited, disowned, shunned, or prosecuted if she engages in sexual activities to accomplish the mission she is given and/or to stay alive.

This Act is then presented at the next Shinobi Convention and is put into effect in nearly every country, despite the blue-blooded elders on all of their councils telling the Kages and village leaders that it was a bad idea giving these women freedom to do what they want.

They were successfully ignored by the general population. And not for the first time, too.

* * *

11. Getsugakure has one of the most culturally diverse populations in the Elemental Nations, beating out Kumogakure and Amegakure by a landslide. This is because Getsu is not actually a village; it is a nomadic tribe that picks up stragglers in every country they pass through.

They have members from the dark skinned mountain dwellers of Kumo to the pale white of Kirigakure. If rumours are true, they even have a few branch member Hyuugas that managed to break free of the Caged Bird Seal.

Uchiha Sasuke is passing through Getsu one day while travelling to the North Base with Orochimaru. He is taking a break when he notices a group of children playing kickball.

He does not think much of it until he takes a look at one of the boy's faces and sees that the kid looks frighteningly similar to his father, Fugaku. Sasuke manages to convince himself that it is a coincidence, but as he is leaving he glances behind and catches a glimpse of something that he is not quite sure what to believe.

No one asks why the Uchiha was so twitchy that night. Kabuto will wonder, but he will not voice his opinions.

But if he did, Sasuke would have sworn by any god Kabuto cared to mention that he saw that kid activate his Sharingan in order to get in that goal.

* * *

12. Like a few other villages, Kusagakure has picked up Kirigakure's distaste for clans with kekkei genkai. While there are no Bloodline hunts in their history, many of their people believe those with Limits are cursed.

Many of the clans have the idea to go into hiding and interbreeding with the ordinary population in order to water down their kekkei genkai into nothing. This plan slowly begins to work and bloodlines stop appearing in their shinobi.

One of the genes cropped up again in a village on the northern border with Iwagakure. A little boy is born with mouths on his hands and chest. His parents, not knowing what to do, hid him away in their house and tell the neighbours the kid was stillborn.

The boy's kekkei genkai was a mutated version of the Korusuki clan's bloodline limit, one that allowed them to turn anything they pumped chakra into into an explosive. All this kid needed to do was place an object into his mouth-hands and BOOM! Things would go up in a fiery mushroom cloud and paint the sky red and orange.

He discovered this on his fifth birthday when he destroyed his family home.

Unable to pay the bills to rebuild, his parents are forced to sell him to Iwa as a slave. As traders pass back across the border, they are stopped by a three-pronged kunai. They are given a second to contemplate their doom before hundreds more rain down on them, bringing with them a Yellow God of death.

Only the slaves are spared.

As the Yellow God leaves, the boy spots one of his kunai in a tree. He tries to give it back, but the God leaves before he can. So as he runs north, the boy takes it with him in hopes that he will see him again.

When he is six, the boy is discovered by an Iwa shinobi named Roshi, who sees his talent to become a shinobi and takes him back to his village. When he is shoved in front of a class of boys his own age, he introduced himself in a thick Kusa accent as, "Deidara, yeah!"

The boys laugh at him, calling him nasty things, insulting his parents, as well as his country of origin. One boy, Sota, goes as far as to call him a "Kusa-coward," a deadly insult to anyone in Iwa. Deidara does not really care what they say; he is going to be a great shinobi, after all.

But when his teacher teaches them horrors of the monster known as the Yellow Flash –_ his savoir, his god_ – Deidara is insulted to the point where his decides he wants to kill them. No one insults the inspiration for his art and gets away with it.

When he is thirteen, Deidara flees the village, leaving half of it in ruins from his C3 blast. He makes sure to watch Sota die, spinning his three-pronged kunai on his finger and asking, "Not bad for a Kusa-coward, yeah?"

Kusagakure's secret is something that they do not even know themselves: they did have retribution for the lives they lost during the Third Great Shinobi War.

Deidara does not care. Kusa means nothing to him now.

In fact, it never did.

* * *

13. Otogakure's secret is about a subtly hidden as a flying mallet. Despite the inhuman power displayed by its members, everyone knows that it is the weakest village in the Elemental Nations.

This is because Oto shinobi and kunoichi lack one quality that everyone else has: loyalty.

Sure, they say they are loyal to Orochimaru, but this is only because they literally have no where else to go. It is better to be clothed, fed, and used as a tool for the rest of your natural life then to be completely alone.

Every Oto shinobi can and will betray their leader if offered a better life somewhere else. Even the fanatically loyal Kimimaro would have turned his back on Orochimaru if someone that knew what they were doing offered to cure his disease.

This is why Sunagakure was able to utterly destroy them during the war that started with the assassination of Temari and Kankuro. Suna was loyal to their village and to their leader. They trusted Gaara with their lives, and in turn, he trusted them with his.

Orochimaru will never understand this bond. Kabuto will never understand this bond.

And that is why they will fail.

* * *

14. Most people believe that the plans for the kunai canons used by Yukigakure were stolen from Soragakure. This is true. But then Sora stole them from Getsugakure, who borrowed them from Suna, who bought them from a flee market in Nami run by a former blacksmith of Takumi Village.

Takumi Village is not generally acknowledged as a Hidden Village despite the fact that is does contain shinobi of its own. This is because instead of gaining an income through taking missions from allied and neutral countries, they take weapons orders from other Villages, no matter what side they are on.

They make kunai and shuriken for every country; they take special orders for katana and staffs, and even adapted the Fuma Clan's massive windmill of death into the foldable one that can be bought today.

The created the Seven Swordsmen's swords, Orochimaru's Kusanagi, and the Yondaime Hokage's Hiraishin kunai.

The idea is quite sound: if you deal the necessities of war to both side, you can make an astounding amount of money just on kunai alone. But if you stop providing them, the fighting will cease until new supplies are given to them.

That is their secret: how they are secretly monopolizing the Elemental Nations and their Great Wars.

When they learn of Pein of Akatsuki's goal, they laugh at him. They've been doing the same thing for nearly a hundred years now.

* * *

15. Yugakure is a former Hidden Village, having turned into a tourist destination about forty years ago. Its hot springs attracted more customers than missions ever did and slowly the shinobi industry ground to a halt.

But within the village's walls lies two terrible secrets. The first is a lot better known then the second: that Yu is home to the Head Temple of Jashin, God of Destruction.

The next has to do with the Akatsuki member, Hidan. His father, who was the shinobi-leader-turned-mayor, decided that paying the workers who were responsible for keeping all fifty-three of their hot springs was costing them too much money. So he decided to get into the Iwa slave market.

Of course, slaves without proper discipline will rebel against their masters. So the mayor decides that he needs to do something so frightening that no one will ever question his authority again.

So he takes his seven year old son to the Temple and makes him a priest of Jashin.

Hidan is used by his father for nearly twenty years to punish rowdy slaves and anti-slave supporters in horrible and obscene ways. He hates it, because the laws of his religion say that he is supposed to sacrifice those that he fought in battle in a glorious way, not chained to a wall in a superheated tunnel under a hot springs hotel.

So he kills father when he is thirty, kills his neighbours (who are in on scheme as well), and frees nearly three hundred slaves from their hell under the springs, before walking off into the sunset to carve his own path as a follower as Jashin.

When Pein finds him, Hidan has to be assured that whatever Akatsuki is planning, it will involve the freedom of slaves across the continent. The false-god agrees, before saying that anyone who is caught owning a slave will be given to him as a sacrifice.

That put a smile on Hidan's face.

* * *

16. Soragakure is known for its high powered sky gliders and its floating battle stations. This not only gives them a massive advantage against any village they happen to attack, but gives them a very interesting look at the world.

It is through this point of view that they were able to discover how minor demons are created.

Every human being has chakra, whether they are shinobi or civilian. It is what keeps them alive, without it they will not survive, the proof of that statement being in the fatality rates of severe chakra exhaustion. But with the body constantly creating chakra, if it was not used or expelled, something called chakra overload will occur.

Think of a balloon. Then fill it with too much air. Now change that balloon into a human body and the air into chakra.

Splat.

Not good.

That is why humans are designed to naturally expel chakra through their pores and breath. This chakra travels skyward, condenses above the clouds where Sora-nin can see and then (if there is enough) creates a demon.

It takes a heck of a lot of expelled chakra to create a even the weakest of minor demons, but it can be said that as long as there are human beings on the Elemental Nations, there will be demons.

The only thing that confuses them is the bijuu. The massive amounts of chakra that form the nine Great Tailed Demons would take astronomical amounts of time for them to form. But there are only records of people living on the continent for less then two hundred years and by their scientist calculations that would not be enough.

Maybe it is best that humanity does not know the truth about the bijuu.

Maybe it is best that they never learn that they were once humans, just like us.

* * *

17. Hoshigakure was named after the star that fell into their country during the reign of their first shinobi leader. It was the first time that any object from outer space has landed in the Elemental Nations. From exposing their shinobi to it, they gained incredible powers that cost more lives than it saved.

What they do not tell the world is that there were originally two stars that fell to the ground. One glowed purple, the other a ghostly green. The green one was stolen by a man during the Second Great Shinobi War.

The star was later shown to a blacksmith in Takumi Village by the man who stole it. The blacksmith was to make it into a sword. Price was no object.

Almost a month later, Orochimaru walked away from that shop with his infamous Kusanagi.

When Sunagakure is going through the things that they found in the many bases of Otogakure, the sword shows up and is put on display in a museum. That year, the Shinobi Convention is held in Suna and the shinobi leader of Hoshi declares their rightful ownership of the legendary sword.

Gaara is happy to get rid of the thing. It reminds him too much of his brother and sister's deaths via Oto shinobi.

* * *

18. Kagero Village's secret lies in why such a small shinobi village would try to attack a superpower like Konohagakure. It was not out of jealousy of their power, or even because of their shinobi leader's superman complex.

They declared war on Konoha because information got mixed up.

Thirty years ago, when the messenger system was not so great, the scroll containing the possible trade roots and the supplies that could be exchanged was accidentally swapped with one of the first Icha Icha manuscripts that Jiraiya ever created. Kagero's leaders believe that Konoha was not taking them seriously and then decided to show them just how powerful they could be.

Jiraiya will never know of this mix up. He will though wonder why, five months later, when he sends the exact same manuscript to his publishers and gets a green light. He will become incredibly confused when they say that his work has defiantly improved since he sent them that horribly written non-fiction novel.

* * *

19. At the west end of Kaze no Kuni, there is a wall made of sticks and stones and mud. Behind it is the edge of a gorge that contains a beautiful crystal blue lake. Surrounding it are tall trees on even taller mountains and a waterfall that causes rainbows to form when the sun hits it just right.

Beyond this lake are untold wonders. There is said to be fertile farmland in the southern most end, forests that go on forever in the east, enormous canyons that are even more beautiful at sundown, and a snowy mountain range that could allow you to touch the sky.

This is the Outer Rim, the home of monsters and thieves, of demons and freaks.

The demons that Soragakure watch form usually end up here. Outcasts and monster flee across the wall, knowing no Hunter nin will follow them there. The Elemental Nations use it as a dumping ground for it's most dangerous criminals.

For all its beauty, the Outer Rim is one of the most dangerous places on the planet. Just standing on the ground can kill you if you stay long enough. If it does not, it will screw with your genetic structure and turn any child you have into a freak.

Someone with the Byakugan once scanned it, to discover an odd green energy seeping from the ground. Radiation, he called it, from the War of Machines.

But that was silly; the War of Machines was all but a legend. Tales of a civilization that lived to destroy themselves by building better and more deadly weapons could not be real.

Metal birds could not exist.

Metal boxes on wheels could not travel faster than a shinobi.

Right?

It is said that Uchiha Madara visited the Outer Rim sometime between when he abandoned Konohagakure and when he attacked the first time with the Kyuubi in tow. It is also said that that was where was driven mad with paranoia, and then with hatred.

What they do not know is that Madara was not alone when he went insane.

The Outer Rim was where he met Zetsu, the cannibalistic plant man, and together they fell into the darkness and were consumed by the thoughts of power and greed.

* * *

20. The Elemental Nations are filled with secrets: the true origin of the Hyuuga clan, the mystery of the minor demons, and the truth behind kekkei genkai are all hidden amongst its citizens.

But the continent itself has a secret that only four people have the privilege of knowing. It is going to die. Everyone is going to die because of Uchiha Madara and his ambition to watch the world burn.

What the continent does not know is that their only hope of survival lies within these four people: a dead-last loser who cannot even perform a signal Bushin _(Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, Rokudaime Hokage, the Hurricane of Konoha)_, a little girl who is all brains and no brawn _(Namikaze Haruno Sakura, Head of the International Medical Department, the Angel of Death)_, the man who killed his own kin _(Uchiha Itachi, Right-Hand man of the Hokage, The Hurricane's Shadow)_, and a psychopathic mass murderer in the form of a child _(Sabaku no Gaara, Godaime Kazekage, the Oncoming Storm)_.

The Elemental Nations do not what is about to hit them.

* * *

**If I ever get the smart idea to make another one of these continent tributes ever again, somebody needs to remind me of this one.**

**Before anyone tells me, yes, I am aware that Yagura is supposed to be the Yondaime Mizukage, but in this story he is not for the simple reason that...well...this is fanfiction and since when did fanfiction follow the rules of cannon?**

**Never right. That's why it is called fanfiction.**

**Okay, I promise that I will give you a Sakura tribute next. Pinky promise!**

**Later,**

**Whitefox**


End file.
